Concerts and the usual craziness

Noah, our oldest grandchild, graduates from high school this year and the next two weeks are going to be full of all things high school senior.  On Wednesday, the last orchestra concert of the year for Marquette was held and Steve and I got to attend. Lucy, being a freshman, also played in the concert. Here are Noah and Lucy afterwards.  Noah is holding a spider plant - a gift from his orchestra teacher who gives all the seniors a plant.  The concert was very good. Lucy is in the "lowest" ensemble but, even that level played very well. Noah played bass in the middle orchestra and he was phenomenal. I loved watching how skilled he was with the music and the pieces that Mr. Ordway, the director, chose were really fun to listen to. The highest orchestra is a small chamber orchestra and they played Summer from Vivaldi's Four Seasons and it was SO good. The first violinist (and soloist) "directed" the rest of the players in true Baroque style and he was professional level! The orchestra was right there with him the whole time. 

All of the seniors in all three orchestras had their own poster (self written) taped to the walls outside the performing arts center and here is Noah's. It matches his quirky personality. I found it interesting that none of the seniors were going to major in music - even the Vivaldi soloist!

Steve and I got to spend some time with Quinn at the World Bird Sanctuary which had their "Eagle Days| on Saturday.  The highlight of the day was having a bald eagle fly over our heads!

 

Yesterday, Sunday, Steve and I got to attend two Southerland concerts. The first one at 3:00 was Noah's Sheldon All-Star Chorus concert where he had a solo, he was honored for singing four years with the group. It was a great concert.  Then, at 6:30, we heard Lucy sing with the Rising Generation Choir. She had a solo in one of the numbers. Another great concert.

When we weren't going to concerts we endured a severe weather outbreak on Monday and a computer kerfuffle where we were locked out of signing in. It required a trip to Best Buy to get it solved. Tuesday we were embroiled in figuring out why the IRS couldn't direct deposit our refund into our bank account. Wednesday we had a House Calls visit from our health insurance. Thursday afternoon, we picked up Joey Chapman from school and drove him home. His mom doesn't have a car and, even if she did, her surgery recoveries would prevent her from driving. So, most Thursdays it is our turn to be chauffer. That evening we drove people to English classes. Steve mowed the front lawn on Friday. We managed to fit in three episodes of Star Trek Discovery towards the end of the week as well as a bike ride on Friday evening and a bonfire Saturday evening. I finished sewing straps onto 60 messenger-type bags that will be handed out to the youth participating in Trek this summer. They will use these bags to hold journals, I think. I only had to do half of the straps. Another woman made all 120 bags and sewed the other half of the straps on. What a project!

Arizona Trip part 2

I left off at Sunday afternoon in last week's blog. Below is photo of Kat, Jesse and their two dogs - little Tucker and big Lucille. After they came for supper, we went over to their house to meet the dogs. Tucker is extremely friendly. Lucille was a bit wary of us at first until we gave her a doggie treat and tossed a tennis ball for her to fetch.  Also, a photo of the puzzle Juli and I worked on Sunday afternoon and evening....

Monday morning, we picked up a rental car (remember Juli's car needed a catalytic converter) and then drove down to Phoenix. We had lunch with cousin Neil Fraedrich and his wife, Gloria in Surprise, we picked up flowers at a nearby Aldi and took some to our visit with cousin Kaye Winfield at her care facility in Glendale, and then we drove up to Anthem (we drove by the house we lived in while on our mission) to see Jim and Joan and take them flowers, too.  Afterwards, we drove to Amy's in Mesa and had a Bowden family gathering (well, not ALL the Bowdens were present) Great visits all!

left to right:  Cory Ellsworth, Rob and Jo Ann Bowden, me, Amy Ellsworth, Juli Davies, Susette Bowden (Brent left early to catch one of his son's ball games)

Tuesday morning, Amy, Juli and I attended the Mesa temple. The saguaro are beginning to bloom and were so pretty, and then Juli took me to the airport and I flew back home. 

Again, my TSA experience without a driver's license went very smoothly. They could actually access my new passport on their computer, which greased the wheels quite a bit, and, of course, on my desk when I got home was my new passport and my replacement driver's license! I was able to finish Fly Me To The Moon (cute movie) on my flight home and I also watched Forrest Gump (which I hadn't seen in years). I finished it as the plane was taxiing on the Lambert runway! The plane landed at about 10:00 pm and the rest of the week has been wall-to-wall. Talk about "hit the ground running"!

Wednesday was unpacking, sorting through mail and other family business that had collected on my desk. I had one music lesson to teach and, that evening, we attended a volunteer recognition dinner for Archway Refugee Connections. It was very nice. When we got home, we found that Sally had pulled off a plate of choco-snap cookies from the kitchen table and had nibbled on several - we were not sure how many exactly - and she had scattered cookies throughout several rooms in the house! So we cleaned up the cookie mess and then out came the hydrogen peroxide to make her vomit. We cornered her in Steve's bathroom so we didn't have too large an area to clean of puke and she seemed fine afterwards. Oh, Sally....

Here is a photo of her the day after, fit as a fiddle and playing watchdog from our living room window!

Thursday, morning we did grocery shopping. In the afternoon, I had an EKG stress test. The doctors have yet to read the results to make a care plan but, happily, the initial report shows no blockages. Stay tuned for the results next week...That night, Steve and I took both cars to drive folks to English class.

Friday morning we had the temple. Then we dashed home for the piano tuner who was scheduled for 1:00. He arrived ten minutes early, which was good since Steve and I both needed to leave the house at 2:00 to take care of many errands - each of us in a separate car. Well, he kept getting phone calls as he worked and he didn't leave until 2:30!!!! THAT was stressful!  In the evening, Steve and I watched two episodes of Star Trek Discovery - the only relaxing part of the entire week because Saturday morning, I had a Grand Market day (three hours) and Lucy came over in the afternoon to spend some water coloring time with me (OK, that was also a relaxing time). She painted a beautiful silver fox.

We treated her to frozen custard at Ted Drewes on the way back to her house. Then, we topped the tank at Costco, ran into Aldi for something we missed on our Thursday shopping day, and, when we got home, I mowed the back yard which had become a jungle during my time in Arizona. The night ended with me cutting Steve's hair. Boy, I was completely worn out when I climbed into bed.

One very bright spot in my week is that I finished book 8 of The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion! SO delightful. I can hardly wait for book 9 to be released and I have been speculating on what will happen ever since finishing. 

The upcoming week looks to be much less crazy....

 

Arizona trip

The week started with a birthday celebration for Lucy last Sunday evening. She is now fifteen years old and a beautiful young woman. Steve and I gave her a violin bow. A few months ago, she observed my violin bow (a relatively inexpensive carbon fiber one I had purchased from Amazon to replace the silly purple fiberglass bow we bought for Kirsti when she was using the violin) and loved the weight and feel of it compared to her own bow and I decided then and there to get her the same one for her birthday. I think she was pleased. I am happy she continues to play violin as a freshman in the school orchestra. Noah is playing stand-up bass in his orchestra and Quinn still plays cello in his middle school ensemble. Larkin informed me that she is choosing viola for her instrument next year. YAY!

Monday morning, Steve and I drove to the bank to get my birth certificate and social security card out of our safety deposit box. We then took those documents to the License Office for me to get a copy of my lost driver's license. I took my number - 78 - and we sat down where I looked up to the number they were currently on....38!!!!! We were in that office for an hour and a half!!! Happily, I had my Emma M. Lion book on my 30 day free trial Kindle. Poor Steve was not so fortunate. But, I left with a photocopy of my current license. I also went to the TSA website and purchased my $45 TSAConfirmID. 

Monday afternoon, I had my cardiologist appointment. I was somewhat nervous about meeting him as he has a middle eastern last name. Over the years, my experiences with many doctors from that region have not been great - poor bedside manner, hard to understand, not very respectful of women, somewhat dismissive - but this fellow was terrific. His family is from Pakistan but he was raised in the U.S. and is as westernized as they come. He was very informative about my condition and the first step is a stress EKG test. He said that almost all of my PVC's originated in the same part of the heart and, if medication could not control it, they would need to do an ablation. But, as I type this, I have been on the medication for five days and I have not felt the palpations hardly at all! My stress test is this coming Thursday afternoon.

Tuesday and Wednesday were just the usual days - chores, lessons, orchestra. Steve took me to the airport early Wednesday evening for my 8:45 pm flight to Phoenix. I was nervous, not knowing what to expect with TSA. I needn't have been. The terminal was practically empty - no lines anywhere! I walked right up to the TSA counter and was directed to a separate desk for people "like me" (without a form of ID or a real ID). The woman was very kind and efficient. She asked me a few questions like "from where was my first social security card issued". I had to think for a moment because nowadays, our children get their social security number as babies but I didn't get mine until I had my first job so the answer, which in today's world, would have been Texas, was California. She asked me the year, make and model of a recent car I owned. I NEVER can remember the year of our Kia but, thankfully, I remembered that the Honda Element is a 2003 so that satisfied her.  Overall, it was a very painless experience. And, there were no lines to go through the x-ray machines so I found myself with tons of time to await my flight. I ate my sack dinner and happily read my Emma M. Lion book. I flew on Southwest but did not opt to pay for my seat so I was prepared for a middle seat in the farthest back of the plane when I checked in Tuesday night during orchestra rehearsal. I was assigned 3E!!! Middle seat, yes but on the third row of the plane! $85 seats! My guess is that the seat was never sold and they just plugged me in since the flight was completely full. As it was a night flight, being in the middle was not a problem for me (who loves to have a window seat to look out). I started watching a movie - Fly Me To The Moon - which was very enjoyable - but the WiFi pooped out about 3/4 into the movie so I just read my Kindle instead. I hope I can finish the movie on the flight back home!  

Amy and I took a walk along a nearby irrigation canal Thursday morning while we waited for my sister Juli to arrive from Payson. 

Once she did, we left Amy behind (too many grandma duties) and drove up to Cottonwood (about a two hour drive) to meet up with our niece, Jill Vidstrand. Jill is a year older than me. She just recently moved there from her longtime residence of Palmdale, California. She lost her husband, Carl, three years ago, and was finding living in California just too expensive and her house was way too big to take care of so she just up and moved to Arizona. She has a really cute condo and two sweet kitties. The three of us said good bye to the cats and drove via Sedona and Oak Creek Canyon up to Williams to stay the night. We didn't stop in Sedona because we have all been there and it is just so crowded and touristy. Williams, on the other hand, is a cute little town along the historic Route 66 - which is why we chose it. It is the 100 year commemoration of the start of Route 66.  We enjoyed wandering all the little shops paying homage to Route 66...check out the photo of the Mater and Lightning McQueen car mash-up!

We had dinner at a Thai restaurant because all the places that had gluten-free were not open until Friday/Saturday/Sunday.  We stayed in a vintage Rodeway Inn overnight - it had been restored and was quite nice and comfortable. 

Friday morning, after our complimentary breakfast, we headed east to Flagstaff for more Route 66 exploring. The visitor's center is located in the historic train station (that is still the Amtrak station).  

We decided to save our downtown Flagstaff exploration for after lunch and we headed to nearby Walnut Creek National Monument to see the cliff dwelling ruins left by the Sinagua peoples over a thousand years ago. They took advantage of natural occurring rock overhangs on the sides of cliffs and built homes using additional rock and mortar. 

The trail has 736 steps leading down which, of course, have to be climbed back up! But, we went quite slowly - me especially since I am not accustomed to the higher altitude of Arizona - and took many stops to sit and catch our breaths. Steve and I never made the time to visit while we were on our mission so I am glad I finally go to see it.

We returned to Flagstaff around lunch time and ate at a Culvers (they do not exist in California so Jill had not heard of the chain) and then drove in to downtown Flagstaff. Being on a Friday, it was full of tourists and finding parking was not easy. We finally found a spot, paid for an hour, and then walked around the cute little downtown. By then, we had acquired all the Route 66 souvenirs we needed so we just walked and looked - well, we did visit a chocolate shop and bought there. 

We then headed back down to Cottonwood to drop off Jill. Here she is in front of her condo

Juli's check engine light went on while in Flagstaff so, after leaving Jill, we drove to an auto parts store to have them diagnose the problem....catalytic converter! No place in Cottonwood could fix it on a Friday afternoon so we said a prayer and headed over the mountain to Payson (about an hour and a half away) and, happily, we made it to Juli's house with no problems. On the drive, we contacted her mechanic to schedule a repair and he couldn't get to it until Thursday. So, after hanging up with him, I booked a rental car for Monday and Tuesday to get us down to the Valley for some more family visits and for my flight back to Missouri on Tuesday afternoon. How did people manage before cell phones?!?!?

We arrived in Payson in the early evening, we ate our Thai leftovers for dinner and we watched The Fighting Preacher on BYU-TV that night. It is a good movie. 

Saturday morning, Juli and I participated in a "Clean-up Payson" event. We donned hats and gloves, brought grabbers and yellow vests and picked up trash for three hours.  Here is Juli on the side of the highway that leads into Payson. Our socks picked up many foxtails and the soles of our shoes collected several goat head stickers that we had to get rid of. And, there were holes in the ground all over the place - I sure hope no snakes lived in them. Happily, I didn't see any!

We came home to eat lunch and rest up a bit before Juli had yardwork to do in the afternoon. Poor girl had the hardest of the jobs - mowing - while I just snipped off dead iris blooms and held a hose and watered. Juli's yard is covered in California poppies right now - so pretty. And, happily, elk do not eat them! (like almost every thing else in Juli's yard). If you look closely, you can see her behind the mower in the second photo....

 I did a laundry later on and we watched Zootopia 2 in the evening. 

Today was church and now a quiet afternoon. Jesse and maybe Kat will be coming over for dinner this evening.  It has been a wonderful visit so far. I will write about my last two days in Arizona next week.