Finishing out August

 Our weather this past week felt more like we were finishing out September. It was so nice on Monday that I opened up windows and turned on the attic fan! Sadly, it is back to heat this coming week - blaaa.

Throughout the week, I spent quite a bit of time working on photos from 1977 through1979.  Earlier, I had scanned the pages from the photo album and this past week, I cropped each photo from each page. All this is to prepare for my Early Lambson Life book that will cover from the time Steve and I met until the time we moved to Missouri. 

I worked at the sewing machine throughout the week and used a music writing program to arrange a hymn for the choir to sing. I finally printed out my orchestra music for the upcoming season that will begin in September. On Thursday, I picked up Happy Hooker (and church) friends Karen and Mary and we went to Nancy's, a fellow Happy Hooker, where she had collected a TON of yarn from Carol, another Happy Hooker, who had recently passed. We all came home with a bunch of new yarn to keep us busy for many months.

On Tuesday, Steve went to the pain doctor for the first of three visits (scheduled two weeks apart) to help alleviate his back pain. Visits one and two are to receive temporary shots to give the doctor an idea if the third and final visit, an ablation procedure, will be effective. Visit one went successfully.  

My garden is pretty stable right now with not much growing so my big outside project was to collect the firewood of assorted sizes that was lined up against the fence and put it into tubs to store inside the garage.  And, of course, I am always pulling up bindweed. 

 

Thursday evening, with the weather still quite pleasant, Steve and I dusted off our bikes and pumped up the tires and rode to the nearby snow cone shack for a treat. I think I have found my new favorite flavor - wedding cake - which was totally gluten-free!

Friday morning, Steve helped me peel a bunch of apples and I made seven quarts of apple slices. We still have at least twice the number of apples left and I will be doing applesauce this week, I hope.

Friday evening, Steve and I hopped aboard the MetroLink and went to another Cardinal's game. I have never enjoyed such great weather at a game! And, our seats, while way up on the 4th level, were right behind home plate. In the last photo, you can see traces of smoke from the fireworks that were set off for the home run that was hit. And, yes, the Cardinals won!

Saturday morning, I took a turn at the booth that Archway Refugee Connections had at the annual Festival of Nations held in Tower Grove Park.  It is a HUGE event! And, temperatures had climbed up a bit so it was hot and super crowded. Parking is always a nightmare so I had Steve drop me off and pick me up and even that was kind of crazy. I kind of hope I never have to go ever again...

Last evening, we drove to Ballwin to bring Larkin her birthday gift (a day early). She is moving into Noah's old room and she wanted a round, green shag rug to give the impression of grass on the floor. Her true birthday is today and Emily sent a cute photo of her all dressed up for church. She is ten years old!!!

Steve and I finished the final two episodes of season three of Star Trek Discovery this past week and we are now setting it aside so we can watch the final season of Strange New Worlds that started in July. We watched the first episode and it was pretty epic. 

Amazing August

I would usually never put those two words together - August is typically hot and dry and busy (for some reason).  Not amazing at all.  This past week, however, we enjoyed gorgeous mild temperatures, it rained twice, and I had quite a bit of free time. It was a lovely week!

Monday morning, Steve had his annual eye exam in a part of town that is approximately half-way to the Southerlands so Emily met us and dropped off Lucy so she could spend the afternoon doing creative things with me.  Lucy worked on a second wolf watercolor (the one on the left)  to pair with the one she did back in May and she also water colored a cool dragon.  While she painted, I drilled holes into my dried bottle gourds. 

I had two music lessons on Tuesday morning and then it was time to get Quinn for his creative time with me. (somehow, I messed up and we didn't get together in June, which was his month). He and I both painted a bottle gourd. He also helped me stain half of the remaining gourds.  What am I going to do with all these gourds? I have no clue!!!

 

Wednesday was a day of errands. Thursday was grocery shopping. Friday was working on finances in the morning and helping Beckie get her car towed in the afternoon. 

Saturday morning, I picked more grapes (and there are STILL more on the vine!!!). After breakfast, Steve and I joined our neighbor, Ed, on a visit to his business - a lab called ELTEK - located in St. Charles where there are two apple trees loaded with fruit. We picked a bushel and Ed gave us a tour of his facility. It tests all kinds of electrical devices for safety. Very interesting. 

Steve helped me peel several pounds and I made a gluten-free apple pie and a big pot of applesauce. There are still MANY more apples left to process sitting down in the basement....

Throughout the week, Steve and I watched two episodes of Discovery, one documentary and three movies: The Secrets of the Bees (watched in snatches while I ironed, scanned photos, and while Steve and I peeled apples) , The Devil Wears Prada 2 ( Wednesday night), Remember the Titans (Thursday night during which time I finished all my scanning for my upcoming Lambson Life book that will cover 1975 to 1981) and The Sum of All Fears on Friday night.  

We had Ben and Jaxson Buttars over for tacos and burritos Saturday evening. They had come into town to work on the house that they are selling (and they now finally have a contract on it).  After they left, Steve and I took advantage of the unseasonably pleasant weather and had a little fire in our backyard firepit. 

Sunday evening, Steve and I drove to Columbia to hear Elise sing in the Memorial Baptist Choir concert. That choir has become quite good and I told Elise that if I still lived in Columbia, I would want to sing in it! We visited a bit with Elise afterwards....

On the way back to St. Louis, we got stuck behind a stalled car in a construction zone on the interstate.  We were all in a narrow lane surrounded by cement barricades on either side so there was no way to go around the car. It was far enough in front of us and it was also dark so we couldn't see what the problem was but I did see a trunk go up at one point so maybe a flat tire???  Finally, the problem was solved and we got moving again after waiting at a dead stop for over thirty minutes!!!  It was a good thing we used the restroom before we left Columbia!!!

The line in front of us.....

The line behind us....

I close with a photo of my beautiful sunflowers and of a wind spinner that Emily gave to me

Our 2026 Stay-cation

Our 2026 Stay-cation sort of started with Johnson's Shut-Ins the week before but it officially kicked off on Sunday, August 9th in Ballwin at Emily and Joe's place. Joe and Vicki were traveling through from Colorado to Massachusetts and we had a family dinner. Joe grilled chicken and veggie kabobs, Steve made his famous baked beans and I brought a GF cake for strawberry or peach shortcake. We brought Beckie with us and we had a nice visit. 

Vicki brought some old photographs with her and notice the similarities between Quinn and his dad when he was a teen!  

Beckie update: She had her PICC line removed on Monday and she was given permission to put weight on her foot - wearing a support boot. And, she returned to work at Little Fox this week!  HOORAY!

Monday morning, the Afghan women visited the St. Louis Aquarium and I went with them (since I had never attended before). It is a smallish venue and overpriced but I did see some cool things, including a random armadillo exhibit/demonstration???? The first photo is of "doctor fish" - the kind that are used in spas. I put my hand in the tank and took it out pretty quickly because it felt really weird. I "found" Dori 😁 and I really liked the sea horses and the jelly fish. 

Monday evening, Steve and I hopped onto the MetroLink and went to a Cardinal's game with free tickets given to Archway Refugee Connections volunteers. The seats were not the best - way at the end of right field - which put us in the sun for the first part of the game (temps were in the high 90's with heat index in the low 100's - blaaaaa). Happily, there was a breeze the whole evening which helped a tiny bit. Our seats were such that it was hard to see the jumbotron and also the angle of the ball when it was hit. And, to add salt to the wound, the Cardinals lost to the Phillies. (they won the next two games, though) 

Our staycation continued on Tuesday with going to the movie Spiderman Brand New Day. We brought Jair, a fellow to whom we give rides to church every week. He lives in a group home and doesn't drive and it would take over an hour and two busses to get to the movie theater. We all enjoyed the movie very much! A huge bucket of popcorn and a large drink was our lunch.

Wednesday, we said goodbye to Sally (we paid my friend Carol to come take care of her while we were gone) and headed west. We stopped at Steven and Tamara's for lunch with them and Elise. We got to see our grand-dog, Biscuit, and to see Elise's "new" car. She was given this 2008 Acura (120K miles!!!) by a family she knows through singing in the Memorial Baptist choir. They recently acquired a third car from her 80 year old mother who had stopped driving and they knew Elise was desperately needing a different car. (her 25 year old Toyota was "totaled" a few months ago in a fender bender that was not her fault. It was still drivable until the starter died two weeks ago). So, these wonderful people gave her their third car! What a blessing!!! And, that means Steve and I will keep the Element for ourselves for a while longer...

We continued on to Kansas City where we checked into a Hampton Inn right next to Worlds of Fun and we attended the Kansas City Temple that evening (St. Louis temple is now closed for some repairs/remodeling until December). 

Thursday morning, after our complimentary hot breakfast, we drove into the city (a fifteen minute drive) to visit the Nelson-Atkins Art Museum. We spent our time in the rooms featuring 19th century European art.  (the giant shuttlecock sculpture is one of four and they are iconic for the museum)

 

We decided to eat quintessential Kansas City BBQ for lunch and chose a long-time restaurant called Gates. Well, if they are a true representation of KC BBQ, then we were not impressed. The sauce was extremely salty and the meat was dried out. The coleslaw was "meh". So disappointing. We rested in our hotel room that afternoon and we watched The Devil Wears Prada to get Steve up to speed on the new movie which we didn't watch because we had a date with the Buttars family. They recently moved from our St. Louis ward to Kansas City and we wanted to see their new home. Plus, I taught Jaxson, the oldest, piano lessons for almost four years and all three boys in Primary. It was a nice visit.

(Steve, Jaxson, Marla, Ben, me in the back with Quentin and Troy in front)

Friday morning, we checked out of the hotel and headed back into the city to visit the World War One Museum. It was phenomenal! So beautifully curated, so informative. We could have spent twice the three and a half hours we spent there. But, we needed to grab lunch and head back to St. Louis. 

We got back home a little after 7:00. Sally was happy to see us. Carol reported that Sally finally warmed up to her on Thursday. 

Saturday was spent doing a lot of laundry and other chores usually done during the week. We drove to Ballwin that evening for me to give Larkin and Quinn piano lessons and to enjoy fireworks with Emily and Joe and kids at their Ballwin Days festivities. I always love a good fireworks show, even in a heatwave (which we were continuing to experience!)

Today, Emily and Joe drove Noah to to University of Missouri S&T in Rolla where he will begin his freshman year studying aerospace engineering. We are all very happy for him and he also seems quite excited...

And now our stay-cation is over and I am looking forward to returning to routine. I am NOT looking forward to continuing heat, however. But, I believe it is supposed to break this week.....