In front are Emma and me, then Kevin and Naomi and Nancy and Jayne are in back.
Now, on to last week. March 1st was very cold and, on the 2nd, it was stormy and wet. I think that counts as "lion-like" weather. Overall, though, it was a rather quiet week. Sickness caused a few music lesson cancellations and we had several free evenings.
With those evenings, Steve and I watched episode 7 of Starfleet Academy and we watched several movies - Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Heaven Can Wait, and the Odd Life of Timothy Green. Neither of us had seen the last movie and we were completely charmed by it. Where were we when it was first released in 2012??? If we had not seen Train Dreams a couple weeks ago, we would never have been recommended this film that also featured Joel Edgerton.
- I got a haircut.
- I picked up more dirt for the raised beds from the free mulch site.
- I trimmed and pulled up dead stuff from the back yard on a nice-weather day.
- With the snow gone and weather warming up, I resumed Concordia cemetery photographing. I am at the point in section 13 where I have to create white board tombstones to mark where individuals are buried. I will be working on those for a few more weeks, at least, since it is a bit time consuming to write down all the information, find the spot to place it, photograph it, wipe off the white board and start all over again with a new person. Steve usually comes to help since a second pair of eyes and hands is very helpful.
- I went to Happy Hookers on Wednesday and donated 11 baby hats and 11 zippered bags. The bags were made out of Lazyboy fabric samples that had been donated two months ago. The fabric is heavy-duty and not fun to sew on. I finished the last 10 bags in that fabric on Thursday and Friday and I am glad to be finished with them. Plus, I came home with SO MUCH new fabric that was being given away (nicer than the Lazyboy samples - they had more of that stuff and I said "no thankyou") . I had enough new fabric to fill two washers full! (they needed to be pre-shrunk). I just need to turn away my eyes whenever I see free fabric!!!
- I finally sold my mom's mother's ring.
- I was at the Monday and Wednesday Afghan women's classes - driving women home on Monday and to and from on Wednesday. Ramadan is still going on so no evening events.
- Remember that since turning 70, my new word is "no"? Well, I had said "yes" before I turned 70 to helping with our stake Trek happening this summer. I said I could help with food. So, last Sunday evening, I attended a food committee meeting. I said up front that I really didn't want to camp in the wilds of Missouri and the three other committee members, all seasoned Boy Scout leaders who have worked for years together providing food for scout camps, said "no problem - if you can just put together a grab-and-go breakfast and sack lunch for the youth as they depart for Trek and provide an easy lunch at the end of the Trek (pizza), you don't have to camp". Wahoo! They steered me to a woman in the stake, who I knew when she lived in Columbia, who has fed hundreds of high school band members over the years and she gave me tons of suggestions so I think I am OK with saying "yes" to this endeavor.
I will close with a happy story. Steve and I have connections with two elderly Vietnamese people here in St. Louis - Steven D. and Hong Loan. Steven D. is Steve's age and is starting to suffer mentally - memory and possibly paranoia. He is not in our congregation any more (boundary changes) but he started reaching out to us a couple of weeks ago. He speaks English but very poorly so we can only understand about 30% of what he says and so it was not clear why he was contacting us. He actually walked to our house unannounced and laid out several documents and tried to tell us what sounded like he was being ripped off. One paper showed a joint checking account with a son, Scott. But, he would not give us contact information for him. I have been Hong Loan's ministering sister for about four years. She is also in her 70's, is widowed, doesn't come to church and she speaks absolutely NO English. For the longest time, I would knock on her front door and get no answer. One time, I thought to knock on the back door and, lo and behold, she answered! Our exchanges consist of smiles and an occasional hug - all at the door - as I give her cookies or flowers or whatever. On her church record, a son named Kevin is listed but the phone number is not working. Steve and I were discussing how we could find their sons to help us help these folks. And, thanks to Google, we DID find them! Both live in St. Louis and I spoke to Scott D. and had an email from Kevin. Happy day!
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