The heat just keeps hanging on

St. Louis has been in a dangerous heat wave for twelve days now. But, Monday, July 21st was NOT a "heat wave" day, surprisingly. We had quite a bit of rain overnight and woke up to some areas that were flooded. In fact, it caused the Afghanistan women's trip to the zoo to be cancelled. I had a free morning! I needed to have some blood drawn to see how my liver was doing so the doctor could decide if it could tolerate a cholesterol medicine that was NOT a statin (which I cannot tolerate). I had planned to drive families to the zoo from 9-10:00 so I scheduled a blood draw at 10:30. Well, since I was already going to get that done, I decided to just do our weekly Walmart shop since it is right next door to the lab. Lab results show that my liver is doing great so I will start this new medicine and see if, in three months, my lipid profile is better. The day was pleasant enough that Steve and I got in a bike ride Monday evening. 

BUT, the heat was back the next day and it has stayed for the rest of the week. Outdoor activities have been limited to the very early morning when temperatures are "tolerable" (although my face still drips with sweat as I work in the garden)

Noah came over to spend some time with us on Tuesday. We asked what he would like to do and he requested some time playing my stand-up bass since he will be playing that in school orchestra this year, rather than cello. He already plays electric bass quite well so he did just great on my acoustic instrument. We played bass/cello duets and he was solid. We took him to lunch at Steve's Hot Dogs before driving him back home. 

Oh, while Noah was with us, we had our weekly FaceTime visit with Alice and Ivan and they were tickled to get to visit with him. Ivan, especially, became quite attached to his cousin Noah during our Colorado reunion. 

Steve attended the temple Tuesday night and I stayed home and watched Legally Blond 2. What a ridiculous movie!!!

On Wednesday at noon, I had to report for Grand Jury selection downtown. I left at 11:00 to make sure I got to the parking garage in time to catch the shuttle to the courthouse so I could be in my seat by 12:00. And, I was. I brought a book and I found a seat and waited.....and waited.....and waited. I got sleepy reading my book so I even dozed a bit. Finally, at about 12:45, an official walked to the front of the room and announced that they had selected their eighteen jurors from the morning group and we were free to go. I had been planning to be there all afternoon so, I had another bonus gift of time! I painted and sewed. 

Thursday, Emily brought Quinn and Larkin to the house for piano lessons. Elise also arrived that morning because she had tickets to the Cardinals game that night. It was "Mormon Night at the Ballgame"....something that hasn't happened since before Covid. Steve and I would have gone but we had to teach English. It was an evening game so, that afternoon, Steve and I took Elise to see the Central Library located downtown. It was built in the early 1900's with Andrew Carnegie money and it is a gorgeous structure. 

Since we are only a 12 minute drive to Busch Stadium, I drove Elise to the game and I picked her up at the end. I avoided the freeway and went straight down Gravois and had no traffic problems whatsoever. And, the Cardinals won!!!

Friday morning, Steve had an eye exam. He gets them annually due to his diabetes. We were not happy with the eye doctor we saw back in December of 2024 so his endocrinologist recommended a different doctor affiliated with Washington University. And, at this appointment, they discovered a hole in his left retina!!!!! At his 2024 exam, they said his left eye was definitely weaker but they said nothing about a hole. So, maybe it developed in the last 18 months? He certainly can see hardly a thing now out of that eye - his right eye has been compensating. He has an appointment with a retina specialist in late August to decide what is next. 

That afternoon, we attended the temple and then we drove westward to Columbia for a variety of reasons: 

1. We wanted to see our new grandpuppy, Biscuit. 

2. I gave my friend, Elizabeth, a birthday gift of some time weeding her flower beds. She has not been able to do any yard work since her below the knee amputation. 

3. Our friends in Columbia have a blue berry farm and we wanted to do some end-of-the-season picking. 

4. I had a replacement oil painting of a cardinal (the bird, not the baseball player 😄) for my friend, Marcie (one of her caregivers stole the first one I did!).  

Biscuit is just SO CUTE! He greets you with puppy whining and trying to get under your feet. He is so tiny. Steven and Tamara are so patient and loving with him.

I woke up at 5:30 Saturday morning to start work on Elizabeth's weeds (she lives about a mile away from Steven and Tamara). That is my usual wake-up time these days since doing any yardwork after the sun is up is just miserable. Elizabeth has two flower beds - one on each side of her front door. I chose to work in the east bed which is about twice as long as the west bed. Once the bed hits the driveway, it bends south towards the air conditioner and, by the time I reached the AC, the sun was up and reflecting off of the side of the house, I had been pulling weeds for over an hour and a half, and I was just spent. I had to leave about twelve inches of weeds up against the air conditioner because I just couldn't do any more. Below are the two yard waste bags I filled, the west flower bed which is what the east bed looked like, and the final product of my labors.

Blueberry picking, on the other hand, was quite pleasant - there was a nice breeze and the sun was still pretty low on the horizon (I stopped weed-pulling and drove back to pick up Steve so we could be at the farm by 7:00). It is the end of the season so the berries were pretty scattered. We ended up with four pounds - enough to share with Steven and Tamara, Elizabeth, Beckie, and some to freeze.  

I ate some breakfast and then went back to Elizabeth's to finish up. Then, after my yard efforts, I returned to Steven and Tamara's for a much needed shower. We played a couple of rounds of Qwix, had a nice, refreshing lunch, took a nap in the deliciously cool guest room in the basement and then we headed back to St. Louis, stopping by Marcie's along the way. There were still several things Steve and I wanted to get done back at home but, after we arrived around 4:45, I was still pretty wiped out and basically just took it easy the rest of the evening. Steve was able to mow the front yard and we watched Rogue One since we finished Andor the night before with Steven. Such a good series!!! As I was getting ready for bed Saturday night, I felt achy and slightly feverish and the sore right breast I had been dealing with since Friday was red. Ah.... that might have explained why I was so wiped out. I went to the doctor Monday afternoon and was diagnosed with mastitis. I am now on antibiotics. 

I played a cello duet with my student, Eliza Brandt, for church on Sunday. Her mom accompanied us. Eliza was not able to play in the recital so this was her "recital". She did great. 

It is now Tuesday morning and I need to post this and get busy with the rest of my day. The heat is supposed to break by the end of this week....

Summer harvest

I wish I could say these raspberries were from our garden but, I can't. Schnucks had a 10 for $10 sale. But look at some of the blackberries we DID harvest from our bushes...

The green beans and tomatoes are thriving and giving a good harvest. When I finally added some calcium to the soil to prevent blossom rot and sprinkled the bases of the zucchini and yellow squash with diatomaceous earth to keep the squash bugs at bay, I am finally getting a decent harvest from them.  And the cucumbers are just going crazy. I bought a mix and made a batch of dill pickles last week but they are way too salty and I can't eat them! Even Steve does not want to eat them. So sad.

Below are my healthy pumpkin plants (that are getting cute little green pumpkins on them) but also get a load of that cat sitting in our back driveway like he belongs there!  I am pretty sure he belongs to someone nearby but he roams all over the neighborhood like he owns it. He looks like Simba so that is my name for him.

And here is Sally checking him out!

I am even getting "fruit" on my indoor plants! I saw these little "pimples" growing on one of my cacti this week...

Steve went to the temple Tuesday evening and I stayed home and sewed and watched Princess Diaries 2. I had it on my list of things to watch and I couldn’t remember why because it is really cheesy. Then, I saw a cameo appearance by Stan Lee and I remembered that he was the reason why. Ha ha...

We had a short but very enjoyable visit with our former mission president, Sean Collins and his wife, Kristen on Friday. They were in town for a family wedding (Sean is originally from St. Louis) and we had lunch at the Stellar Hog. 

Otherwise, the rest of the week was busy (as usual). On Monday, I spent the entire day at the church as the building representative while Kindness Begins With Me had some training. I was able to find things to do while I was there - I organized the music in my choir closet, I worked on finances, I worked on my English class lesson, I practiced the piano, I read. It was not bad at all.

Tuesday, I had a calcium CT test to check the plaque build-up on my heart. I can't tolerate statins so my cholesterol is probably not as low as it should be. The test showed a mild buildup so now I get to have bloodwork done to see if my liver can tolerate a non-statin medicine that will help control the calcium buildup in my coronary arteries.

We hosted two women from the ward for lunch on Thursday. Sam Carpintero is now my ministering companion and we minister to Carol S. so she came with Sam and we had a nice time. 

Steve and I finished episode 9 of season 2 of Andor last night. So good! We'll probably finish the series this week.

 

Elise's birthday

Elise came to town Tuesday night in time for us to catch the 7:00 session at the temple and then she stayed with us through Thursday so we could celebrate her 46th birthday on Wednesday. She wanted to visit St. Charles to see what it was like when it was not the Christmas season. It is a charming place year round and we enjoyed strolling the cobblestone street and popping into an occasional shop or two.

(notice we are all wearing our Colorado reunion t-shirts. We got a few nice comments about them)

 Of course, Elise needed to visit the British Shop to get her fancy Twinings herbal tea. And, we had lunch at a new place that featured sandwiches and crepes. They even offered gluten-free buckwheat crepes so that is what I had. You will notice that it looks very "dessert-y" and it was. A strawberry crepe brulee. It was delicious!

For Elise's birthday dinner, we grilled hamburgers and also had corn on the cob, watermelon, and she requested lemon icebox pie for her "cake". It was very yummy.

The Afghanistan women's outing this past week was to the Magic House. I drove to Kirkwood to pick up a family to attend, ran a couple of errands while in Kirkwood (Hobby Lobby, Walmart), drove up past Forest Park to pick up Maliha from her English class at noon and took her home (she lives by us) and drove back out to Kirkwood to pick up the family and take them home. Then, to Costco to fill the car up. I should have kept track of my mileage because it was a lot. My poor buttocks were sore after all that driving!

Sally got groomed on Thursday. I had them give her a straight buzz cut because it is so hot. She looks terrific. 

On Friday, Steve took Fred to his colonoscopy appointment in the morning. I took aluminum cans to metal recycling. That afternoon, I got a free slurpee from 7/11 because it was July 11th. Pina colada. 

A nice neighbor who lives along the way to Morgan Ford Street intercepted me Monday morning to give me a bag of about 10 cucumbers from her garden. She wanted to thank me for our efforts to pick up trash every morning on our walk. My cucumbers are also starting to produce so I made a batch of dill pickles yesterday afternoon. I haven't done that in years. I used a pickling mix. I will sample a jar later today to see how they turned out. 

Just a few more random things: Steve and I have delved into season 2 of Andor and we finished episode 4 last night. We got this in the mail last week. Look carefully at the name - Kael.  Kirsten's initials happen to spell the same word (Kirsten Anne-Elizabeth Lambson). How does this even happen??? It is so wrong on so many levels! 

And, finally, a cut photo of Sarah's critters all snuggled up together on her bed. I love it!

 

Fourth of July 2025

We had quite the 4th of July this year! Unlike many previous years, we got to hang out with a few of the kids. Beckie flew back from Arkansas in the morning and I drove to the airport to pick her up. Because Tamara is out in Arizona visiting her family and because Steven had a temple session to attend on Saturday, he drove from Columbia Friday afternoon. Beckie came over and the two made a visit to the international food store in Kirkwood for some fun shopping. They brought me back some halva 😁. Beckie had evening plans so she didn't join us in Ballwin at the Oberweis Ice Cream shop where Noah had to work. 

We didn't go watch fireworks per se but we got to see lots of them from the interstate as we drove back home AND our neighborhood is always full of people breaking the law and shooting off fireworks up to midnight. In fact, it was illegal fireworks that set a garage on fire about four houses down from us! Steve, Steven and I had been watching the final episode of season one of Andor when we got back home from Southerlands when the lights started to flicker and the internet went out. While we were trouble shooting, we heard a frantic knocking at our front door! It was our neighbor, Sergio, advising us to shut off our electricity because there was a fire next door.  Steven and I went out and saw flames shooting up at least thirty feet in the air in the back alley, completely engulfing a garage and power lines. Thankfully, the fire didn't expand to other garages or houses. It was so surreal to watch this fire and see fireworks shooting all around.

Midday on the 4th, after Beckie and before Steven, Steve and I attended the ward BBQ. It was hot but happily, a shelter had been reserved at the park. It was about as well attended as could be expected for a holiday weekend. Grilled burgers were yummy.

While the Steves attended the temple Saturday at noon, I went to hang out with Emily at the Pagedale ward meetinghouse and help distribute free hotdog meals to the community. Only, they had plenty of help. So, I just visited for about an hour and then drove home. 

The internet was back up Saturday morning so we finally finished Andor. Whoa! SO GOOD. I'm looking forward to starting season two this coming week....

Otherwise, the week leading up to the 4th was average: pulling weeds and watering every day, driving Afghanistan families on Monday to a park with a splash pad, taking two months of sewing projects to Happy Hookers on Wednesday, teaching lessons...It was a good week.