Bitter Cold and Snow

The cold has been all week - temperatures in the single digits and wind chills in the negative numbers. I am SO thankful for a functioning heater!!!

The snow started up Saturday morning and it is predicted to fall all day today and end mid-afternoon! Here is where we are this morning...

It has been a rather quiet and fulfilling week. On Monday, the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, I had one music student at 10:00 and then it was concerts the rest of the day. Steve and I attended a MLK memorial ceremony at 11:00 at UMSL because Noah's choir was singing. We attended another memorial at an LDS church in St. Charles at 6:00 because Lucy's choir was singing. I didn't get a photo of Noah's performance because it was so dark in the auditorium and we were asked to NOT take photos. I did get a shot of Lucy, though. She is third from the right in front. My cello student, Eliza, is second from the left in back.

Both choirs sang very well. I am so happy that Noah and Lucy are involved in singing as well as playing in the school orchestras.

Tuesday I worked on finances and I actually dusted for the first time in at least six weeks! I worked on Blurb books in the afternoon. I take all my blogs and upload them into a Blurb book - one book for a full year of entries. Somehow, my 2024 book was mostly deleted but, thankfully, I still have each blog entry available online. I just have the tedious task of moving them over into a Blurb book which I started doing that day. I also baked some gluten-free cupcakes and I had some leftover cream filling from an earlier cake and I experimented with inserting filling into the cupcakes. It worked!

Wednesday Steve returned to his doctor (well, actually the P.A. since the doctor seems to never have an appointment opening) because he was still having pain in his feet/legs plus he had developed a rash on his lower back. They did an x-ray and he has no breaks but he does have a form of plantar fasciitis. They drew blood and he does not have any uric acid in his bloodstream anymore (which causes gout). He DOES have shingles (the rash) but, since he has had a shingles vaccination (probably 5 years ago), it is not a bad case. In fact, he hardly even notices it but they prescribed a cream anyway. And, he was put on a dose of steroids for the pain he is having and, of course, that has made quite a difference. Hopefully when his round finishes up this coming week, it will have done enough to end any future foot/leg pain! While Steve was at the doctor, I went to my friend Mary's house and, with another friend Judy, we helped Mary and her daughter Tracie create some table decorations for Tracie's upcoming marriage February 7th. I had music lessons all afternoon and that evening, Steve and I watched the newest episodes of All Creatures Great and Small and Starfleet Academy. 

Thursday morning, for the first time in over two weeks, Steve felt good enough to walk! We went grocery shopping later in the morning. That afternoon, I bought a plane ticket for my visit to Arizona in April. Yay! That night, it was English class.

Friday the temperatures had dipped low enough that neither Steve nor I walked. We braved the cold only to attend the temple. That night, we drove over to Beckie's to watch the Hunger Games movie with her. She saw her surgeon on Tuesday and her foot is healing nicely. She is still not allowed to put any weight on it and she is pretty much home bound. But, she is in good spirits.

Yesterday morning, the snow started to fall. It is so cold and the air is so dry that it is light and powdery. Steve had to pick up his insulin in the morning and he said the roads at that time were not bad. But, the rest of the day we just hunkered down inside - only going out to let Sally go potty. I filled my day with assorted projects: baking a cake for Sunday dessert, practicing the cello, watercoloring February birthday cards, sewing, adding more blogs to my 2024 Blurb book. Steve was channel surfing in the afternoon and came upon the old 60's movie What A Way To Go and we both got sucked in, even though we had both seen it a couple of times. It is a  pretty fun movie and I loved all the amazing outfits that Edith Head designed for Shirley McLain. After dinner, we watched E.T.....this was again prompted by the John Williams CD we listened to on New Year's Eve. It has been at least twenty years since I have seen it - maybe even thirty years. To see little Drew Barrymore - she was so adorable!

Women's Group has already been cancelled for tomorrow and I can't imagine getting out to teach music lessons so I will have another "free" day  to fill. Love it!  

Of birthday boys and getting back to normal

Steve turned 73 on Saturday, the 17th and Quinn turned 13 on the 18th so we had a family dinner celebration Sunday evening at our place. Beckie was able to attend, thanks to friends Kyle and Micah who came up from Arkansas for the weekend to visit her and help with her recuperation.

not shown - Steve and Noah who were behind the camera. Emily made the snickerdoodle cake and I made shepherd's pie (per Quinn's request)

Beckie came home from the hospital last Monday afternoon. With the knee walker borrowed from Emily and Joe, she is able to scoot around her place with ease. I bought a shower stool that will fit in her antique tub and she had her first shower since the hospital on Wednesday. I stuck around just in case she had problems but she reported it worked great. She has to stay off her foot for three weeks and I am not sure if she will be able to go to work during that time. We'll see what her surgeon says tomorrow...

Steve has slowly been improving from his gout. I had an epiphany on Monday that we needed to drastically change our diet. Remembering what we ate during the month of December (beef, ham, pork exclusively) it is no wonder he had a flair up! Going forward, we will eat red meat only two times a month and consume chicken, fish and vegetarian the rest of the time. I also bought tart cherry pills that he is taking daily. We borrowed two knee walkers for Beckie with the idea that she would use one at home and one at work but, since she was not yet at Little Fox, I took one home for Steve and it was a great help all last week - certainly much better than the walker! And, as the week has progressed, he has been feeling better to the point that he is now walking without any aid, he is going down the stairs to the basement, we were able to attend the temple on Friday and he even helped pass the sacrament on Sunday! Now, he is not completely pain free but it is tolerable. 

I gave Quinn and Larkin piano lessons Tuesday evening before orchestra rehearsal. Boy, it had been a long time since their last one! Thursday evening was English class. I can't remember if I have reported that, since the first of this month, I am no longer teaching a class. I requested this so I could spend more energies with sewing projects for the ladies. I still drove two groups of women to and from class and will continue to do that going forward. And, instead of sitting around for that hour Thursday night, I participated in a zoom meeting for the food committee of our pioneer trek the stake is holding this summer. Yes, in spite of my 2026 goal of "Less", I am involved in another project! I signed up to do this this back in October when I was not considering doing "less", darn it! I think, after the first meeting, that I will continue to be a part of this committee but I am not sure I will actually be there at the trek in June. Maybe if someone provides an air conditioned RV for the support crew, I will reconsider???

Kirsti sent Steve a new BYU sweatshirt for his birthday. 

My gift was seasons 4 and 5 of All Creatures Great and Small on DVD. We caught the first episode of Season 6 this past week. Loved it, as usual! We also drove to Culvers for his birthday and enjoyed a delicious concrete. We also watched the movie Midway this week. While playing games New Year's Eve, we listened to a CD of John Williams music and he wrote the score to Midway. We commented that we had never seen the movie (made in 1976) so I requested it from the public library. It had an all-star cast (Henry Fonda, Charlton Heston, Robert Mitchem, Robert Wagner....) and it used a lot of actual footage from the war, which was cool. It was a typical war movie. Nevertheless, we didn't hate watching it 😄. We also watched the first episode of Starfleet Academy on Paramount+ this past week. Boy, it is going to be a good series!

Temperatures have been all over the place this past week. It reached the high fifties on Tuesday and I spent some time in the yard - still trying to close flower beds down for the winter. I finished trimming the iris back and I also cut back the chrysanthemums. Then, the thermometer plummeted and we have been positively frigid all weekend and into today. We even got a dusting of snow Saturday morning. 

I close with a shot of my little Christmas tree farm. All five were the same size when I planted them  five years ago. Weird how they vary in size now. The second from the right will be ready for cutting next year, I think...

 

A week of health issues

Beckie had surgery on her left foot Monday evening. The surgeon had to make an eight-inch incision to get all the infection out! Steve and I were able to see her after the operation. I had women's group all morning and lessons in the afternoon but Sarah and Emily were able to spend some time with Beckie mid-day. 

On Friday, the 2nd, Steve developed shooting pains in his left foot, centering around his left big toe. The pain continued all weekend and moved up into his leg. He was finally able to get a doctor appointment for Tuesday morning and it was diagnosed as gout. This is a first for Steve. And, in spite of prescription medicine that we picked up Tuesday morning and the tart cherry juice I bought on Friday and the heating pad, he has been miserable and pretty much recliner-bound all week. He uses a walker to get around! The medicine was for eight days and you can be sure he will be reporting to his doctor early next week about his progress (or non-progress, actually). 

Tuesday morning (earlier than Steve's appointment) I had bloodwork for a fasting lipid profile to check if my statin medicine was working and IT IS!!!  I am so delighted that I have a statin that I can tolerate and that is doing some good. 

Friday morning, I had a dermatologist appointment for my annual full body scan and I checked out just fine. 

Beckie has been in the hospital all week and was originally scheduled for surgery to close up her wound (which they left open and have been packing and dressing twice a day since Monday) on Tuesday, the 13th but yesterday, her surgeon informed her that her numbers were looking very good and she had the surgery this morning. I was able to be with her before and after this operation. The plan is for her to go home tomorrow sometime. 

I was able to visit Beckie every day this week at various times. She has also had plenty of friends up to visit her and when no one is around, she sleeps. She has not been able to tolerate the hospital food so friends and family have brought in assorted foods that sound good to her but she is also dealt with nausea for a few days. 

Elise came into town Saturday afternoon and she helped me get Beckie's car back to her home after we visited a bit that evening. We were met by Emily at the apartment afterwards and we did a some cleaning for Beckie. She had been so sick before she ever went to the hospital that she didn't feel like doing much around her place. Elise returned to Columbia this afternoon after another visit to the hospital.

So, most of the week, I have been driving - to Missouri Baptist Hospital, to doctor appointments, to the grocery store, to orchestra rehearsal for the first time in two months,  to English class Thursday night, to drop off my sewing machine for routine cleaning and other errands. Because Steve cannot get up and down the stairs, I have been doing a LOT of laundry - for us and for Beckie. Whew, what a week!

Below are photos of the cute squish mallow that Larkin and Emily brought to Beckie to use as a hugging pillow (I brought a pillow case the next day to put it in so it keeps clean) and of the plant and flower that we bought her.

Happy 2026

 This past week has been full of family time!  Julina drove over from Indiana on Monday to spend a few days with us. Beckie came over that evening and we had the best visit - Beckie, Julina, Sarah, Steve and me.  Tuesday morning, Steve and I picked up our Kia Soul that had been in the body shop for two weeks getting the back bumper fixed from when someone backed into me at the air pump at the service station. This was in early in October. Then we did a bit of grocery shopping. Julina drove over to Ballwin to spend some time with the Southerlands and to see Zootopia 2 with them. That evening, while Julina and Sarah had dinner at Little Fox in the evening, Steve and I watched Best In Show (I got from the library). It was amusing but a bit too crass for our taste. Wednesday we got up bright and early and drove to Columbia to spend some time with Steven, Tamara and Elise. Sarah and Julina got to meet Biscuit. We all had lunch at Flat Branch and then said our farewells (Tamara had a doctor appointment and Steven had to go to work) and drove back to St. Louis to celebrate a quiet New Year's Eve at home eating yummy snacks and playing games. We all went to bed before midnight..

We said goodbye to Julina early New Year's Day and then I spent the rest of the day putting away Christmas decor. We took a break at 11:30 to take Lucy to lunch at Panera. Emily and Joe dropped her off at our place when they borrowed our Honda Element to help haul pieces of a twin loft bed they bought off of Marketplace for an update of Lucy's room. 

Friday morning, the leaders of Kindness Begins With Me needed to purge the storage room in the church and which meant I needed to be there as a church representative while they worked. I had choir things to work on so I was happy to be there. I continued working on Christmas cards in the afternoon and Steve and I attended the temple in the evening. 

Saturday started out as a nice quiet day. I ran a few errands and taught a cello lesson and continued with Christmas cards. Sarah left at about 3:00 for Columbia to have dinner with Matt, a friend from high school and his new wife. About the time she left, we got a text from Beckie informing us that she was in the ER at SLU (St. Louis University). Back in early October, she traveled to Chicago with friends and with all the sight seeing, she developed a blister on her left foot. It got worse and worse and, once she got back home, she went to urgent care where she got high powered antibiotics and instructions on wound care. Her foot since then has been gradually getting better and better until the wound was about the size of a quarter in diameter. Three days ago, it suddenly got worse. Really worse so that she started running a fever, she had to leave work New Year's eve and she spent New Year's Day in bed sleeping and going between hot and cold in temperature. She got up to 102 degrees at one point. Saturday morning, she went to urgent care again and they told her they could give her another round of oral antibiotics and a wound care consult but they advised her that she should go to an ER since this wound looked pretty deep and it might have gotten down to the bone. So, Beckie arrived at the ER a little after two where they eventually took some blood but then, nothing more was done for her. She waited all afternoon and into the evening in the cold, drafty waiting area - still chilled with a fever, trying to doze. I packed up a ham sandwich and a blanket and joined her at about 7:00 and waited with her until about 10:00. She finally walked out at midnight after being ignored for ten hours!!! Of course, this ER is in the city where a lot of folks use it as their primary care provider so I guess we shouldn't be surprised. This morning, she went to a different ER - Missouri Baptist Hospital - which is NOT in the downtown area and which has the reputation of having a better ER and she was seen by a doctor within two hours. She had more bloodwork taken, had an x-ray and an MRI and was almost going to be sent home this evening until a foot specialist looked at the MRI and suggested she stay overnight - most likely to be put on IV antibiotics. Whew!  Poor Beckie - what a way to start the new year. 

We have a new church meeting time - 9:00 am - and I love it. This afternoon I had the best nap and I finished Christmas cards. Whew! And, I have been worried and checking my text messages with updates on Beckie.