A week full of family

On Tuesday afternoon, Jami, Brad and their three boys came for a few days visit. They had come from Nauvoo and Chicago and Kirtland before that. We put Brad and Jami and the two little boys in the guest room (they brought a pack n play for Levi) and Kason slept on a blow-up mattress in the TV room upstairs. While Brad set up a temporary office in the library and worked all day, Jami and the boys explored St. Louis. On Wednesday, they went to the zoo (they LOVED the penguins) and the Museum of Illusions. That evening, we grilled a St. Louis original - pork steaks - and ate on our lovely deck. Weather was perfect. I had recently inherited a used corn hole game from one of Beckie's co-workers and the boys loved playing it. On Thursday, they went to the arch and the City Museum. Beckie had to work crazy hours all week so the only way she could see them was to bring donuts over Thursday morning and chat for an hour. Emily joined her. Then, Thursday evening, we all (Steve, me, Southerland clan and the Jensens) gathered at a lovely new park in Brentwood and ate Stellar Hog BBQ take-out and, while the kids played, we visited until dark. And, Friday, they left at 7:00 am for the drive back to Maryland. Thanks to Hurricane Mariana, they had rain all the way home. And we had rain all day here.  Below are two photos from their visit: a rousing game of Qwirkel and all of us at the park.

They gave us the nicest thank-you gift when they left - everything orangy smelling or tasting. 

Friday afternoon, Steve and I drove to Ballwin to pick up the Southerland kids. Emily and Joe put them on the bus in the morning and then they headed down to Hot Springs, Arkansas to celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary for the weekend. I drove Lucy, Quinn and Larkin back to our house that evening in the Southerland van while Steve stayed in Ballwin to pick up Noah from work at 11:00 and stay the night with him. Steve drove back to Holly Hills Saturday morning with Noah just hanging out at his house because he had to work on Saturday, too. I drove to Ballwin to pick him up at 11:00 and bring hm back to our house.  Sunday, after we attended Stake Conference, we played games and ate dinner and Emily and Joe came at about 6:45 to take the kids back home. The kids were very well behaved the whole time and they mostly ate what we put in front of them. 😄 Lucy and Larkin were my biggest challenges in the food department. They all liked the left over chicken drumsticks we had on Friday and the burritos on Saturday. The chicken cheese enchiladas and Spanish rice met with mixed reviews on Sunday. Sigh....We watched Court Jester Friday night. Saturday morning, we water colored cards. That afternoon, they binged on Bluey while I taught some cello lessons. That evening, after dinner, we put a leash on Sally and we all took a walk around the block. Saturday night, the kids watched Holes while Steve attended the Saturday evening session of Stake Conference and I stayed home and watched it on YouTube. I told the grandkids the movie rule at our house - you have to watch the first thirty minutes of it. If, after then, you don't want to watch any more, you are excused. I was happy that they all liked both movies enough to stay through the end. We all attended Stake Conference Sunday morning.  That afternoon, we played a great game of Qwirkel, starting with one perfect square and then going on to finish the game by creating three perfect squares. Then, Quinn, Noah, Steve and I played dominoes while Larkin built a castle with the Qwirkel blocks. Lucy opted to stay down in the guest room and read her book.  It was a great week of family! I ditched Civic Orchestra on Tuesday and both Steve and I stayed home from the Kindness Begins With Me English classes Thursday so we could spend as much time as possible with the Jensens. 

 

hit by illness

 Steve came down with a cold Monday evening.  I did Wednesday morning. Sally has a UTI. So we have all been down for the count - at least for a couple of days for Steve and me.  By Saturday, we were able to serve our baptistry shift at the temple and we went to church today.  It was the Primary program and just imagine eight wiggly under-five-year-olds with zero attention spans and one 10 year old who really didn't want to be up there and how a program would go with those parameters. Yeah, you guessed it. But, everyone loved it, of course. The 10 year old is my piano student and he played a simplified arrangement of I Am A Child of God on the piano and nailed it but perish the thought that he would ever sing loud enough to be heard! His little brother, on the other hand, made up for the both of them.

Sally has been VERY smelly lately of urine. I would bathe her and she would stink the next day! So, I finally researched it and UTI was a possible answer. I called Open Door on Tuesday and they asked me to bring her down on Wednesday. At that point, I just had that tickle in the back of the throat that always heralds a cold so I had no problem driving her down. Fortunately, they were able to do an in-and-out cath to draw out some urine (she is a very up-tight pee-er) and, sure enough, UTI. She is on a week-long regimen of antibiotics that we picked up on Friday because I felt too crummy on Thursday to make the drive. 

With all the down time, we were able to watch two movies: Charade on Friday and the 2010 Robin Hood on Saturday. Both of us had seen the first movie but never watched the Russell Crow version of Robin Hood. It was definitely a different take on the story but we both enjoyed it. We are also caught up on Rings of Power, of course. 

On Monday, before we got sick, we actually took a little bike ride in the evening. That was nice.  And Steve drove to the airport that morning to pick up Beckie from her California trip. 

And that was our week....

Grandchildren joy

Last Sunday afternoon/evening, Steve and I and Emily drove to Columbia to hear Elise sing in the Memorial Baptist Choir annual Scholarship Concert. It is always an excellent concert and on the drive there and back it was good to visit with Emily one-on-one. 

Kirsti shared this photo of Ivan with us - fast asleep sitting up. Poor tired little boy. We get to visit with Alice, Ivan and Kirsti every Friday morning for about fifteen minutes via FaceTime and it is one of the highlights of our week. What a blessing to have technology that allows grandparents to watch their grandchildren growing up even though they are 1,300 miles apart!

Speaking of grandchildren, Larkin was baptized yesterday. I got to give the talk on the Holy Ghost. Steven and Elise drove over from Columbia to share in the day. Elise arrived Friday evening and will be here through this afternoon - Steven just came for the day. Papa Joe, Joe's dad, drove over from Colorado. Sadly, Vicki couldn't make it.  Larkin shared her baptism day with another little girl from her Primary class, Brielle Martin.

Aside from the baptism, which was the highlight of the week, it was my first Home School Orchestra class on Tuesday afternoon. There are eight students ranging in age from 8 to 14. Seven girls and one boy - seven violins and one cello (guess who is the cellist?  Yep, the 8 year old boy). I look forward to a great year with them.

It was also the first day back for the Afghanistan women's group on Monday mornings. And, the first time in a month that we had Come Follow Me scripture study with Elizabeth Crippen. After two surgeries, she was finally back in a place to join us via Messenger. 

We had to take the Kia Soul to have a right turn blinker bulb replaced. Happily, it cost under $50. I finished processing the remaining apples from our neighbor's trees, I baked two half-batches of gluten-free cookies. And, while Elise has been here, we watched Big and The Client. 

I close with a cute photo of Larkin who, like the cats she adores, loves to play in empty boxes.

 

So Summer ends and September begins

Two weeks of transitioning from summer to September and we have gone from brutal heat to lovely cool temperatures. It was the hottest day of the year when the St. Louis Civic Orchestra had their welcome back picnic on August 27th. It was pretty miserable.  It was our conductor's 60th birthday and I dusted off the cake decorating skills and made a 12 X 18 sheet cake for the occasion. It was so hot, the icing just kind of slid off the side of the cake. But, reports were that it tasted delicious. I made a small gluten-free cake but I was the only celiac/gluten-intolerant person attending so I brought it back home with me and have been enjoying it ever since.

It was still hot for Larkin's 8th birthday on August 30th. But, happily, we were all indoors when we celebrated. Emily, as usual, outdid herself in the cake decorating department. And Joe provided a delicious gluten-free brownie for me. We turned the cupcakes into fire-breathing dragons...

Happily, by Sunday, September 1st, a cold front had blown in so it was lovely that evening for a "Farewell to Blue" gathering. Blue is Sam Carpintero's bulldog who has an inoperable tumor and was  put down today (September 9th). So, we had some friends from the ward come over to say goodbye and one woman brought her "big" camera and took some professional photos of Sam and Blue. I just took camera photos.

The weather stayed lovely for our Labor Day family picnic. It was our first official event for the newly refurbished deck. We grilled hamburgers and had all kinds of salads and sides and I made homemade vanilla ice cream. We invited Fred Olver to join us. Noah was coming down with something (which turned out to be allergies) so he socially distanced from the rest of us.

There were two doctor appointments in the past two weeks. Steve had a dermatology appointment on Wednesday, August 28th and, currently, his doctor's office is in Wentzville (60 minutes away). The Fenton office (20 minutes away) flooded last year. Blaa. BUT, Wentzville has an amazing BBQ restaurant called Dukes so I joined him and we had lunch before his appointment. 

The other doctor appointment was for me on Tuesday, August 27th but, when I went out to the garage to drive the Honda Element, it wouldn't start. Steve was already on his way to the temple in the Kia Soul. So, that had to be rescheduled for tomorrow. And, ultimately, the Element had to get a new battery. 

Orchestra resumed rehearsals on September 3rd and we are playing some great music for our October concert including Peer Gynt Suite - which I have never played! I will be teaching Larkin and Quinn every other week just before orchestra (since both are in Ballwin) so they had their first piano lessons in over a month last week. 

Other random events of the last two weeks are that I made another batch of grape jelly and there are enough grapes for a third batch next week (probably). Thursday night English classes started last week. We had a house guest just last weekend - Pat Rybolt from Columbia whom I have known for years. She owns the Music Suite where I briefly worked after we got back from our mission. Her grandson got married on Saturday in St. Louis and she stayed with us that night. It was so nice to get to visit with her. 

Steve and I have watched quite a few movies:  We finally finished Mission Impossible-Dead Reckoning (part 1), Remember the Titans (Steve's August movie) and his September movie watch was The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe, Prince Caspian, and Voyage of the Dawn Treader. (I only saw the first two on Labor Day - Steve had to finish when I was at orchestra the next night) We also watched Capricorn One, and we are caught up on the new season of Rings of Power.  I finished the book Remarkably Bright Creatures.   Good book!