Well, we survived the flooding

Our horrible heat wave / drought broke Monday night into Tuesday morning in a HUGE, record breaking way.  We got so much rain overnight that we broke an over one hundred year record for rainfall.  I am not sure exactly how much our neighborhood got - I dumped four inches out of my rain gauge - but Wentzville got eleven inches!  And parts of the city had horrific flooding.  People were being told to stay home unless they were escaping water.  Roads were closed all over the city.  Below is a photo that Steven sent me of a bridge over the Des Peres River that he got off of national news.  After that is what this bridge usually looks like (I took it on Thursday).  This is about two miles from our home.

The water table was so high around our house Tuesday morning that we had water seepage in our basement.  There is a hairline crack in the floor that seeped water and we have a little hole by our floor drain that actually became a spring, bubbling up water.  But because our basement has a cement floor and is not "finished" with a cement floor.  Just stuff that got wet and since then, I have taken steps to solve that.  Completely minor problems compared to people who had their whole house flooded or washed away (like those in Kentucky!)  We had another heavy rain Thursday afternoon that brought flooding in new areas of the city but again, we were spared.  It was just a noisy storm and poor Linus had to have my hand on him the whole time or he would paw me until I did.  

With the rain came a break in the temperatures and weather has been lovely the last few days.  

Larkin and Lucy had their day with grandma and grandpa on Wednesday.  One of our projects was to make caterpillars from a pair of footie socks that I didn't wear anymore.  Larkin, with her obsession for cats, made hers a "cat"erpillar complete with whiskers, legs, and a tail.  I am including three photos because I couldn't get a perfect one of both girls in one shot.  Sigh.

Another project was to help me dust and they did quite well.  They each had a dusting wand and I think I need to hire them for every week!

In the afternoon, all four of us piled in the car and headed to thrift stores to look for a set of shelves to display my Noah's Ark knic knacs in the guest room.  It took three stores but happily, I found one that will suffice at the third location.  Lucy and Larkin were each given a dollar bill to find a treasure.  Larkin found one right away at store #1 - a felted bunny basket with handle.  Lucy didn't find hers until store #3 - a small crate with three small pots inside filled with artificial spring flowers.  Definitely a dust collector but it was pretty and it will look nice in her room.  I forgot to take a photo...

The garden has loved all this rain.  The green beans are coming in hot and heavy and so are my tomatoes.  The squash are petering out but I think I will plant a second crop this coming week.  I tried to grow carrots in the small black grow-bags but that was a fail.  I have potatoes growing in two of them and they are thriving.  Next year, I will plant all of those small bags in potatoes.   Remember my attempts to thwart the squirrels from eating my corn?  Well, it didn't work and they ate through the netting.  But, surprisingly, they are not attacking all my corn and I harvested three ears on Friday.  We feasted on home grown corn and beans with our fried fish on Friday night.

Sometime in the last couple of days, someone gave us a "heart attack".  So nice....

We suspect the sister missionaries.

We got "Spiderman - No Way Home" from the library this week and watched it over Thursday and Friday nights.  I have to say it was annoying early on  but it redeemed itself towards the end.  I have been watching "Ms. Marvel" and it is fun.  Steve is not a fan - too teenage-y.  We worked at the temple baptistry this morning and I spent over two hours going through civic orchestra emails this afternoon while Steve mowed the lawns and worked on the "lights around the back deck" project.  And, now I think this is about all of our news.  

 

A hot, tiring week

It has been so hot all week long with temperatures hovering around 100 degrees every day.  And, all I have done is water to keep the yard alive.  Thankfully, we are charged just a flat fee for water usage.  That seems weird since I grew up in the west but I am not complaining.  My gourds vines are producing and see these two pretty ones!  And my zinnias are going crazy.

The corn is actually doing well but the squirrels have discovered the almost ripe ears!  The second photo is what I am trying to do to keep them from molesting any more ears.  We'll see if it is a deterrent.

Monday morning, first thing, we had a new dishwasher installed.  Our two-year old Samsung dishwasher died a second time and we were not willing to fork out another almost $200 to fix it again so we bought a $399 Frigidaire (bottom of the line) which hopefully will last longer than two years.  We've had Frigidaire appliances before and they have good longevity.  We learned from the installer that Samsung appliances are junk.  The appliance store doesn't even carry them any more!  And finding someone to repair Samsung was really difficult.  

Elizabeth Crippen drove over Monday afternoon to stay the night and go to the temple with us Tuesday morning.  Tuesday evening I had a meeting with the treasurer and president of the orchestra via Zoom.  Wednesday, Noah and Quinn came for the day.  They helped us buy groceries in the morning and Steve had them learn to make sloppy joes in the afternoon.  They are such cute kids.  We introduced them to the movie "Interstellar" and it blew Noah's mind.

Thursday was our day to go to Columbia for Steve's annual eye exam.  After the doctor, we had lunch with Steven at Wendy's (that is them sitting by a fake fireplace in the restaurant) and then I taught a cello lesson in the southwest part of town.  We needed to get back home for Steve to do church responsibilities in the evening so it was a long, tiring day.  Steve admits that he probably should start looking for an ophthalmologist somewhere in Saint Louis.  His Columbia kidney doctor, however, will  stay the same for the time being.  Beckie came over for lunch on Friday, and late that afternoon, we had to head to the temple to work an extra shift at the temple baptistry and it was BUSY!  We came home just exhausted.  Yesterday, Saturday, was a ward pancake breakfast and art show and Steve stayed home - he had just too much he needed to do and there had been no time during the week to accomplish much. I, on the other hand, attended and displayed some pottery and paintings.  Plus, I ate a ton of gluten-free pancakes and I was not hungry the rest of the day until dinner time.  Joe is out of town on a business trip so Emily brought the kids over Saturday afternoon for piano lessons and they stayed for pizza before driving back to Ballwin.  It was nice to have them here.  In three days, we got to see three of our children in person.  Of course, we talk to all of them every week which is also very nice.   

I played the cello duet of "My Heavenly Father Loves Me" again today - this time in the Oakville Ward where the other cellist and her mom, the accompanist live.  And then I got to accompany the bishop's family who sang in our ward sacrament meeting.  That explains why I am blogging at 8:30 at night instead of 8:30 Sunday morning.  

Besides watering, the temple, entertaining friends and grandkids, and driving to Columbia, the other project this week has been to cut, sand, prime, and paint some shelves and wall pieces for the basement bathroom.  I am now finished with that part and I hope to get them installed this week.  It shouldn't be TOO hard to do (famous last words)....

 

Birthday bash

We enjoyed Elise's 43rd birthday dinner on Sunday, a day past her actual birthday.  She requested hamburgers, corn on the cob, watermelon, and a raspberry zinger cake (think coconut and raspberry flavor - it was delicious!)  Beckie was here to help celebrate and we had a great time!

 

I do need to report on the ward choir performance on Sunday, the 10th.  We have a harp player in our ward (incredible, isn't it?) and, she and a very accomplished flute player accompanied the choir in an arrangement of "Where Love Is".  It went very well.  I have to say, for a ward choir, I have an amazing group of musicians.  The voicing is well balanced.  They all are good singers.  And, they all show up for rehearsals.  It can't get any better than that!

After a Sunday like that, the rest is just ho-hum.  Sally went to the vet on Monday - I wanted to establish care with this new vet whose office is very close-by and I wanted to talk about her weight (she is just right) flaky skin (fish oil in her food) and her nerves during firecracker season.  That afternoon, I made a drive down to Fenton to deliver mail to the orchestra treasurer and to pick up some more bird seed at Fenton Feed.  Birds are voracious and feed is expensive these days.  Tuesday we went to the temple and we bought some lilies that were half-price at Home Depot on the way home.  We had the sister missionaries over for dinner, and that evening I rehearsed a cello duet for performing at church.  Wednesday, the Element finally got the tailpipe repaired.  No more rattling down the road.  Steve and I watched "Sully".  Good movie!  Thursday, Linus got a bath and haircut and I baked a chocolate zucchini cake with a monster squash that got away from me in the garden.  Friday I cleaned, taught two lessons, trimmed at pottery, and Steve and I were invited to dinner with Mike and Karen Bazdresch from church.  Karen is my adult piano student and a dedicated student and she was so sweet to make a completely gluten-free meal.  I brought the zucchini cake for dessert.  Saturday we worked in the temple baptistry in the morning.  While there, I did a really STUPID thing.  I have been SO careful to eat gluten-free ever since I was diagnosed in 1999.  And, if I accidently ingest some gluten, I have some pills called Gluten-Defense to ease the tummy ache I get.  And that is all I get, is just a slight ache in my belly.  No nausea....just pain.  Well, there were Krispy Kreme donuts in the temple cafeteria for everyone and I have never tried those specific donuts.  So, I decided to take a Gluten-Defense and eat one....a whole, cream filled, frosting and sprinkle topped donut.  Oh, my, it was delicious.  It wasn't until we got home, had lunch, and laid down for a nap that I got hit HARD with what I did.  I was so nauseous.  I threw up. And, after that, I still felt miserable for most of the afternoon.  What an idiot I was!  I have never done anything like that in 23 years.  As a result of my action, I wasn't able to do what I had hoped to do the rest of Saturday - specifically water color.  Instead, I lay on the recliner and watched "Fantastic Beasts and How to Find Them".  By the end, I finally felt like eating a popsicle.  And, by the evening, I felt like getting up and doing things (but not eating anything but a piece of toast) so I was able to do the baking I had hoped to do.  And that is the week.

To the 4th of July and beyond

And now July is here in full force.  We had a heat advisories for most of the week and no rain until Friday evening and Saturday morning.  I just dumped 3/4 of an inch out of my rain gauge.  I told Steve that it was so nice to finish a day without worrying about what needed to be watered.  And, temperatures are perfect this evening.  Elise is here to celebrate her birthday - which is today - and she is currently at Six Flags with Southerlands and this weather is a true gift.  We went to the Cardinals game last night against the Phillies and, as we were traveling to the stadium on the metro, we could see black clouds and lightening over downtown area.  Sprinkles started to fall as we exited the train and walked to the entrance.  Happily, the sky waited to open and dump until we were inside the stadium.  It rained hard for about thirty minutes and delayed the game an hour but it brought cooler temperatures.  Sadly, the Cardinals couldn't do anything and they lost 2-0.  

This morning, we joined Elise at the temple.  She will stay again tonight and Beckie will come over for her birthday dinner (a day late) tomorrow evening.  

The Independence Day celebrations last weekend with fireworks being shot off all around us (illegally, by the way) was very rough on Sally.  And Linus fed off her nervousness so getting them outside to go potty was a challenge.  I couldn't get her in to see a vet for doggie tranquilizers soon enough so poor Sally suffered.  At least she doesn't destroy things like Trissy did!  Because we knew the dogs would be scared, because it was going to be horribly hot, and because Steve has a tradition of watching all three Lord of the Rings (extended version) on the 4th of July, we went nowhere and just hunkered down in the cool and gorged ourselves on Hobbits and One Ring and Elves and Dwarves.  I worked on sewing and some craft painting while we watched.  We did venture out mid-day to Culvers since their flavor of the day was raspberry cheesecake and we grilled pork steaks and invited Sam Carpintero over to eat dinner with us.  Fireworks blasted all around us until eleven at night.

Tuesday morning, Steve finished watching Return of the King - we just couldn't stay away past the lighting of the beacons the night before.  I couldn't join him as I had to take the Element to the body shop to have the tailpipe repaired since the part finally arrived (we had our rear-ending back in April!).  I was prepared to stay the two hours while it was being worked on but the time hardly started when the serviceman came to me and informed me that our tailpipe at some point in the past had been welded and this new part was going to have to be welded on!  They don't do that kind of welding and I had to reschedule the repair.  So, I went home, did my planned work there and watched most of Return of the King that night while Steve was at a church meeting.  I still couldn't finish it and had to do that Wednesday evening.  

Grocery shopping was done over two days - Steve went to Walmart Wednesday morning with Fred while I was with Mary Bell at Happy Hookers.  I went to Aldi Thursday morning while Steve was at his internal medicine doctor appointment.  

I started three new virtual string students Thursday afternoon.  They are a family in New River, Arizona, who know the Lucas family (I have taught Erik Lucas since we were there on our mission).  The 17 year old daughter plays violin and wants to do more fiddle music.  The 15 year old son plays bass and is quite talented.  I will mostly coach him since he plays at my level right now.  The 14 year old daughter has played cello for a year and is very motivated to move forward.  They are all three home-schooled so scheduling an hour and a half block of time shouldn't be too difficult.  

Friday morning I heated up the oven and did all my gluten-free baking at one time (just like the pioneers used to do).  I baked a yellow cake for Elise's birthday, a white cake just because I had some egg whites to use up, and a double batch of pumpkin muffins for my breakfasts.  I had spent my gardening time earlier that morning shoveling and hauling mulch to the front yard and between that activity and standing in the kitchen, I was quite exhausted by lunchtime...so much so that I worried I would not have enough energy to go to pottery.  Happily, I woke up feeling rejuvenated so I went but, when I got there, I wore myself out even further by throwing 5 pounds of clay to make a plant pot.  Centering a large lump of clay is quite the workout!  I think that is why I had a hard time staying awake at the ballgame that evening.

I will close with photos of the garden.  You can see that the corn is in tassel and I have some ears forming.  The zinnias are blooming.  The pumpkin and gourd patch are producing.  There are volunteer sunflowers growing by the bird feeder and the asparagus patch with yellow squash and zucchini plants in the background that are already bearing.  The green beans are covered with blossoms and the tomatoes are loaded with green fruit.  My newly planted crepe myrtle seems to be thriving as is my white hydrangea and elephant ear.  And my potted flowers have not been dug into by the squirrels this year (thanks to the chicken wire I placed around the rims) so they are doing well.

 

June into July

We started our week with Emily's 45th birthday!  Noah was away at a youth conference so Emily and Lucy, Quinn, and Larkin met us at Treasure Aisles on Big Bend Boulevard and we wandered around finding treasures.  Larkin loved everything but, of course, couldn't get it all.  In this photo, the cute little beaded purse is something she ended up getting while the furry kitty was something we just took a photo of.  Even though I don't need any more "things" around the house, I bought a cute little glass ink bottle and Steve bought a small Liberty Bell.

Afterwards, we drove up the street to Mr. Wizard's Frozen Custard for a chilly treat.  

After our frozen custard, we all went back to our place to relax. Emily took a nap downstairs and the kids hade screen time.  I love how Larkin made herself comfortable in our front room during her screen time!  Joe came after work and we enjoyed Emily's birthday dinner of cold BBQ chicken wings (not really BBQ but more like sweet and sour), coleslaw, 3 bean salad, pasta salad, fruit salad, and cake and ice cream.  Temperatures were so nice we ate outside.

The pleasant temperatures continued into Wednesday so Steve and I took advantage of that and went camping at Meramec State Park Tuesday night.  This campground is on the Meramec River which is very popular for float trips so it was not as wooded and private as Robertsville where we camped earlier in the summer.  I'm not sure we'll camp here again because of that.  We had a super easy supper of hotdogs and campfire pies.  Delicious!  I took a photo of mine (gluten-free, of course) just as I was having my last bite (that white stuff is powdered sugar).  With our air mattresses, sleeping is quite comfortable.  The only difficult part of camping at my age is getting my shoes on in the middle of the night and walking to the bathroom.  It is SO far away!  You can see it in the background of the photo of Steve with Sally.  

 

We got back home mid-day on Wednesday.  While Steve had youth activities that evening, I had a two-hour Zoom meeting with members of the Saint Louis Civic Orchestra and our four conducting candidates to discuss repertoire for each of our four concerts this coming year.  One conductor per concert and then it will be decided who the orchestra hires to be the permanent conductor going forward.  It should be an exciting year.

Beckie came over for lunch on Thursday.  We had leftover salads from Monday and she brought some delicious Costco smoked pulled pork.  YUM!  Little Fox was closed this week so she actually had a bona fide vacation!  She spend the first part of her week in a cabin in southern Missouri and she was heading to Kyle and Micah's in Springfield for the last part of the week.  

Steve and I re-watched Interstellar Friday night and boy, that is an intense movie that really boggles the mind.  I think it infiltrated my dreams all that night.  Saturday morning was our temple baptistry shift and we just came straight home afterwards rather than doing piano lessons at the Southerlands (we just had lessons last week and Noah had not practiced since he was gone).  That evening, we did another dinner and movie night at Mona and Ed's.  We always have gluten-free Costco pizza which they enhance with veggies and olives.  I brought chocolate cupcakes.  And it was Mona's turn to choose the movie and, even though I said "No rated R", that is what she ended up picking!  A film from 1995 called The Perez Family.  I had never heard of it so I didn't raise an objection when we started watching it.  Thankfully, on a raunchiness scale, it tipped more towards the PG-13 rather than the X.  However, as a movie in general, it was pretty meh.  Oh, well.  It was fun to visit with them and to get loves from their four little dogs throughout the evening.  

Our area has been in somewhat of a drought for most of June but happily, we got rain all day Saturday.  Yay!