Birthday boys

Last Sunday evening, we celebrated Steve and Quinn's birthdays.  Quinn turned 11 on the 18th and Steve turned 71 on the 17th.  We enjoyed a delicious Mexican feast with Beckie and the Southerlands -  chicken cheese enchiladas made by Beckie, Spanish rice and refried beans, gluten-free empanadas and fresh pineapple topped off by a gluten-free cake provided by Emily.  

Sally is ALWAYS happy to be with Beckie!

Monday we DID get freezing rain so schools were cancelled.  Huzzah!  I enjoyed being at home all day.  The ice was gone by noon, however - another Huzzah!

Tuesday evening was the all district beginning strings concert.  There must have been sixty string students on that stage!  Thirty of them were mine.  With winter dryness and cold, the pegs slip so keeping the violins in tune was kind of crazy.  From start to finish, the concert only lasted thirty minutes.  

Speaking of concerts, Steve and I attended the St. Louis Symphony Saturday night, after a delicious dinner at Little Fox - all to celebrate our 49th wedding anniversary coming up on the 31st.  The concert featured Peter and the Wolf and two other pieces written for the ballet by French composers:  The Spider's Feast by Albert Roussel and The Model Animals by Fancis Poulenc.  Both pieces were beautiful!   Peter and the Wolf was accompanied by a stop action film of the same title that was certainly not the Disney version - it was pretty dark but still an impressive work - created with the assistance of over 200 people over a period of five years!  

I am now in an interim period between the fall and spring sessions of beginning strings and I have loved my extra time day.  I had hoped I would be further along in my Christmas cards but I still have next week....

We got a flat tire Thursday night on the way to English classes at the church (Welcome Center / Kindness Begins With Me mission that we are now serving).  I hit a pothole just before getting to the church so I was able to slowly drive to the parking lot.  We called USAA roadside assistance and they sent a tow truck.  We also qualified for a $30 credit towards a Lyft ride so I ventured into that world and downloaded the app and arranged for a Lyft ride.  Wouldn't you know, though, that both the tow truck and the Lyft ride came at the same time which was also when all the Afghanistan refugees were leaving the building after classes so the parking lot was a chaotic mess of people and cars to take them home.  I didn't even notice the Lyft car until I saw a text saying it had arrived because there were so many cars.  I spoke with the driver to tell him I needed to flag down the tow truck and I left to do that.  But, as Steve and I were talking to the tow truck driver, Steve saw some people get into our Lyft ride and drive away!  Thank goodness for my ministering sister, Marla Buttars and her husband who came to get us and take us home.  The next day, we learned that we needed a completely new tire as the pothole created a gash on the sidewall!  We had just replaced our front tires so I guess that is why we only had to buy one rather than two again.  Ugh!  

Steve and I finished the third How To Train Your Dragon and we also watched the 2008 Get Smart movie with Steve Carrell and Ann Hathaway.  As fans of the original television series, we both loved the movie. 

We have had rain and clouds all week but milder temperatures.  I hope we can get out and do a bit of yard clean up this coming week - stuff we never got around to doing in November.  I also hope to send all my belated Christmas cards.  Stay tuned.....

STILL cold!

All week, we have still had single and even negative thermometer temperatures.  Oh, how grateful I am for a heater that works!  It was so cold on Tuesday that schools were cancelled throughout Saint Louis.  Because the St. Louis Civic Orchestra rehearses in a public high school, our Tuesday evening rehearsal was cancelled!  

Steve celebrated his 71st birthday on Wednesday.  Kirsti celebrated her 33rd birthday on the same day!  Would that we could have been with her in person but we did have a nice phone visit.  Our celebration here was pretty low-key.  Our oven is currently not working (repair person to come this Tuesday) and I couldn't bake him a cake.  So, we went to Schnucks and bought him some donuts.  

Steve and my Christmas gift to ourselves arrived early in the week - a mini fridge.  We have put it down in the basement next to the chest freezer and we are keeping Steve's extra insulin, sodas, and rarely-used condiments.  You can see that it has a retro design...kind of cute.

The fall/winter semester of beginning strings is wrapping up this coming Tuesday with a combined concert at Mehlville High School.  We had a dress rehearsal last Thursday afternoon and it was truly organized chaos!  So many string instruments that needed to be tuned!  

I also wrapped up my first semester of teaching beginning strings with a local home school group with a recital Saturday evening.  We held it at the church where one of the families meets.  From left to right in the front row is Rowan, Jaxson and Maria.  In the back row is Nora, Ben, me and Eliza.  Maria, Nora and Ben are siblings and they are joined by Rowan in my home school group.  Jaxson is one of my piano students and Eliza is a cello student.  Please note that Rowan really does know how to properly hold her violin - but I kind of like the symmetry she has achieved... 

 Sally went to the groomer on Wednesday.  She looks great and but now has to wear a sweater since all of her insulation was shaved off!

Steve and I watched the second episode of All The Light We Cannot See and we are not going to finish the last two episodes.  It continued to veer quite dramatically from the book.  On the other hand, we thoroughly enjoyed the second episode of All Creatures Great and Small.  We also watched How To Train Your Dragon 2 last night.  I also watched Forgotten Love on Netflix during the week.  It is a Polish film with English dubbing and it is very well done.  

Freezing rain is forecasted for tomorrow morning - maybe a day off from school???

flowers from my home school students....

Brrrrr

It is COLD outside.  Temperatures are in the negative numbers.  But, things are growing and blooming inside.  This isn't a great photo but it is an orchid that has re-bloomed.  And, I spent time Saturday afternoon pruning, splitting, and transplanting many of my other houseplants.  The music teacher at Blades Elementary has a perfect north-facing window with a generous window sill and he is willing to take my excess plants.  

 

The bottom photo is a plant that started from a few stems I brought back from my sister Juli's place when I went to help her after her back surgery in 2021.  It has loved it's place in the guest room window and has just grown like crazy so it definitely needed a prune!

The new season of All Creatures Great and Small has begun and Steve and I watched the first episode on Monday.  Having it air in January and February helps make the cold winter months more tolerable.

Melanie Johnsen had a birthday on Tuesday and she came to St. Louis to celebrate.  We fed her an early supper and she had hoped to attend the temple but the weather forecast caused the temple to close early so we played a round of Bananagrams and a round of Qwirkle and then she just drove back home.  It was nice to have her here.  And I forgot to take a photo!!!!

Civic Orchestra started up Tuesday night.  It was good to be back. That's me sitting down on the right in the red top.

Thursday evening Steve and I started our service at the Welcome Center.  Steve is teaching a men's beginning English class.  He has an interpreter to help.  My job is to coordinate teachers and make sure each class is covered each week.  

Parts of Missouri have had winter weather (snow, etc) throughout the week but all St. Louis has had is rain, a tiny skiff of snow on Saturday, and bitter temperatures.  But, because much of the state was under a winter storm advisory on Friday, the temple closed again in the afternoon so Steve and I were not able to attend our scheduled session.  We just hunkered down in our warm, cozy house all weekend doing assorted projects.  We finished putting away Christmas decorations and put out January snowmen décor.  I re-potted plants.  We watched the first of a four-movie DVD set that Melanie gave us for Christmas called God's Not Dead on Friday night.  It is a Christian-based series and the first movie was well done, well acted.  Some timeline plot holes but, oh well....Saturday night, Steve and I watched the first episode of a four-part mini-series of All The Light We Cannot See.  Both of us have  read the book and it is a bit disappointing how the screenwriters have already tinkered quite a bit with the story.  Plus, the book did not have any language and we have heard the F-bomb four times already!  We will give it one more episode to decide whether we finish it or not.  We then watched the first How To Train Your Dragon movie. Elise is loaning us the three DVD set.  Beautiful soundtrack, amazing animation and fun storyline.  I'm looking forward to the next two movies.  And, I checked out the

Secrets of Dumbledore to watch the last fifteen minutes that I missed because my flight from Utah ended.  Good ending.

I have a day off tomorrow thanks to the MLK holiday.  I also have Tuesday off since it is a teacher workday.  Then, I have just two more days of teaching, a dress rehearsal and a concert on January 23rd and then I have a small break before I resume teaching for the spring semester.  I am hoping for a January thaw so I can get some yard work done!

Stay warm, everyone....

Well, it's 2024 now

Julina, Steve and I celebrated New Year's eve by playing some rounds of Bananagrams and Qwirkle.

I didn't intend to be awake for the new year but I had been reading until about 11:30 and then I couldn't fall asleep so I got to welcome 2024 with all the neighbors and their fireworks!  

We had a relaxed New Year's day.  I brought my gluten-free stollen from Christmas (thank you, Kirsti) and we had that with eggs and hot coco and wassail for breakfast.  We enjoyed another charcuterie-type holiday meal for "lunch" 

and Alex felt well enough to join us and Stratton also came down from his bedroom.  So, after we ate, we all played a few rounds of Uno.  Alex is on oxygen much of the time and the nasal cannulas irritate his face so, in the past, I have covered the tubing close to the nose piece with soft flannel.  He needed more coverings so I had to visit JoAnn fabrics to buy more flannel.  (Oh, darn, you mean I have to go to JoAnn??? 😉) And, while I was there, I bought a few pieces of Christmas fabric for future projects - which I will do BEFORE the month of December begins.   With my busy teaching schedule combined with all the traveling and the book projects we did for gifts, this Christmas holiday was just crazy busy and I, for my mental health, cannot let that happen again.  

We left for St. Louis Tuesday morning and had a relaxed afternoon getting unpacked.  We were invited to dinner with some church friends that night.  We've eaten there twice before and I never had any dietary problems but this time, I ate something that was very gluten-contaminated and I was so sick when we got home.  Within two hours, my entire body was emptied of everything.  Plus, I was suffering from chills and severe foot neuropathy (for some reason).  Then, in the middle of the night, I had to toss off all the blankets and clothes I had bundled up in.  Not the best night's sleep.  Happily, I was not sick on Wednesday but my stomach was still pretty sensitive so I didn't eat much.  The only thing I had to do that day was drive to Wentzville to my annual dermatologist appointment.  I may have mentioned this when Steve went, but the Fenton office for this dermatologist group flooded back in August so all visits are out in the Wentzville building.  It is almost an hour's drive one way!  The doctor froze off two little pre-cancer spots on my nose and cheek but otherwise, I was signed off with a gold star.  

Thursday I had to start back to teaching that afternoon and, in the evening, Steve and I attended the new semester orientation meeting for the Kindness Begins With Me Welcome Center.  When Steve was released from the bishopric back the first of December, we were called to be church service missionaries with the Welcome Center which aids Afghanistan and other Middle-Eastern families in the St. Louis area with English and driving lessons.  Monday mornings host a women's social time.  Thursday nights are for English classes and they are both held in our church meetinghouse.  Saturday mornings are for driving lessons and they are held in another location.  Steve and I will be serving with the Monday and Thursday activities.  It is an official two-year mission sponsored by the Church meaning we have to register through the missionary portal and we will wear nametags like any senior missionary.  But, getting connected through the missionary portal has not proven to be easy which is why I have not mentioned this new assignment until now - because I don't feel like we are "official".  We haven't received any documentation/training/guidance from Salt Lake and we haven't been set apart by anyone.  But, training for the new semester was Thursday and the semester begins tomorrow!! So, ready or not, hear we come!

Friday morning, Steve picked up his new glasses.  I think he looks so good, so natural with them on.  

I have started to take down Christmas décor.  The live tree in the living room was just a tinderbox with needles everywhere.   It is a slow-going process, though, because life gets in the way - like another temple baptistry work assignment Saturday morning, Southerland piano lessons after that.  We had a handyman come repair some soffit siding and he will also install gutter guards.  We got a little spoiled with previous handymen who went out a purchased needed items.  But, this fellow needs us to make the purchases and we didn't remember that so, we had to run out Friday night to Home Depot to pick up a box of gutter guards.  And, wouldn't you know, it snowed overnight so they have yet to be installed.  No matter, though, and the snow was SO lovely.  Big fat flakes but only sticking on the grass and greenery so driving was perfectly safe - well, as safe as driving around in St. Louis can be!

Steve and I finally finished the Manifest series last night and I have to say, it was a very satisfying ending.  I have been thinking of it off and on all day.

Looking forward in 2024 we will all congregate in Indianapolis on April 8th for the total solar eclipse.  We plan to go to Arizona for an Ike and Florin Young reunion in June.  I have five more months of teaching beginning strings and then I will be DONE!  I might look into raising a few chickens once I am through.  So, here's to a great new year!