New things

We have a new laptop! Our old one would not support Windows 11, it was getting really slow, and working in WORD was getting wonky so we had to buy a new one. And this one is FAST!  I love it. 

And we have a new roof! When we had gutter guards installed on the east side of the house, our handyman mentioned that our roof was looking kind of old. When we bought the house four years ago (this month), there was no statement as to the age of our roof so it probably was getting old. We had recently developed a small leak when it rained very heavily that manifested in our basement, of all places, right above the dryer and we figured it was around one of the vent pipes up above. And we have had a few hailstorms this spring so I called our insurance, USAA, to see if they would look at the roof and possibly approve a new one and, by golly, they did! Roofers arrived early Monday morning and, by noon, they were done. It was a six-man crew and not one of them spoke a word of English. Hooray for Google translate when it was needed (not much).

Monday mornings are usually when I drive Afghanistan families to summer activities but my one family was a no-show so I had the morning off! I honestly didn't blame them - it was going to be the zoo and it was so hot and humid that day that I personally would not want to walk around a zoo. I came home and picked my garden, instead. The beans have been so prolific that, even after sharing with folks, I have had enough to freeze ...I prepped them for that while watching The Fugitive. What a great movie that never gets old. The concord grapes are getting ripe and I have enough now to make a batch of jam and there will be more coming for a second batch. And, cucumbers and yellow squash have been having a good year. Zucchini not so much but I still have hopes....

Tuesday morning, I had a teacher meeting and luncheon for the home school beginning strings class that I will be doing this year. It was lovely and informative but too long and I was not able to get finances worked on that afternoon. Steve and I attended our ward temple night that evening. A "cold" front blew in that day bringing relief from the high temperatures and humidity we have been having. The rest of the week has been SO refreshing...

Wednesday was Happy Hookers and afternoon dentist appointments so no finances were worked on that day. I always come home from Happy Hookers with yarn to make hats with. The crochet ladies only like to crochet with a certain kind of yarn but friends and family always give them all kinds, including the stuff they don't like to work with so they bring what they won't use to the monthly meetings and, because I can make a hat with almost any kind of yarn, I collect their discards. I now have SO MUCH YARN that I really need to stay away from a Happy Hookers meeting for the rest of the year!  

Steve and I grocery shopped Thursday morning and in the afternoon I had music lessons and food prep for the potluck picnic that marked the end of this trimester of Afghanistan English class. Temperatures were just perfect that evening and we had a great turnout. But, I had no time to work on finances, again!

Friday morning, Emily brought Larkin and Quinn to our house for piano lessons. Joe had a day off so he came, too. Lucy and Noah were at Table Rock Lake on a ward youth activity so they didn't come. After tickling the ivories, we all trooped over to the Carondelet mulch site to load up the Element with mulch for the back driveway. It is always a huge task and Steve and I greatly appreciated the Southerland's help. Someday, we will pave the turn-around and back driveway but, until then, it is always in need of more mulch.

Steve went to the temple Friday afternoon but I stayed home and finally got to do - you guessed it - finances! And, it took me ALL afternoon because it was all the first-of-the-month stuff that needed to be done.

Saturday morning, bright and early (7:00), Steve and I drove over to help Miriam and Miriam Paulson load up their little U-Haul trailer and their cars and their parent's van so they can return to Utah. They were only here for a year but they were such a huge asset to the ward and especially to the ward choir. I will sorely miss their lovely voices.

We were finished by 8:00 and the rest of the day was blessedly free of outside commitments so I filled it with fun things like oil painting and watercoloring. I also bathed Sally and cut Steve's hair. Even though the deck painting project is finished, we are expanding our deck lighting so I have been painting the four additional poles and other pieces to make that happen and I did some more of that kind of painting Saturday evening. With the cooler temperatures, painting is not so bad, actually. 

So, the week seemed really long in some ways and some family history projects were hardly touched, it was a good week overall.