Arkansas Adventure

 Because the St. Louis temple is closed for four months (August through November), Steve and I are taking short trips to nearby temples. Last month, it was to Kansas City and last Friday and Saturday we visited the Bentonville, Arkansas temple. We set out early Friday and drove first to visit Bennett Springs State Park. I've seen photos of the place in the Missouri Conservationist magazine, particularly on opening day of trout season, and I've always wanted to see it for myself.  The water comes up out of the ground cold enough to sustain trout so there were many folks out there fishing. 

A butterfly liked Steve's hat....

We didn't stay too long because it was close to lunch time and we had decided on going to the Golden Corral in Springfield which was an hour's drive away. But, we HAD to stop at Buccees along the way. It is quite the gas station!!!! Truly a destination...

We hit the Golden Corral at about 1:45, well past lunch time, and the parking lot was packed! We discovered that was because it was full of senior citizens taking advantage of the senior lunch special from 1:00 - 3:00. SO many old people clogging up the lines. 😂But, you can't beat the price and the variety. Plus, each food item lists allergy and calorie information, which was very helpful. 

Then, we drove the final two hours down to Bentonville, arriving around 5:00. We had to quickly check in and change for our 6:00 temple session. Thankfully, the temple was only a ten minute drive from our Hampton Inn. It is a gorgeous temple and we had a nice evening. 

Saturday morning, after our complimentary breakfast at the hotel, we checked out and drove about ten minutes to the Crystal Bridges Art Museum. It specializes in American art, it is free, and it was so lovely! We could only give ourselves an hour to visit so we just went to two galleries and the gift shop (of course) but it was a very enjoyable time.  

Then, into the car we climbed and off we went through the Ozarks of southern Missouri. We drove (and drove and drove) through through beautiful woods, through a rain storm, through small towns and, four hours later, we arrived at Big Springs. Yes, another spring. The Ozarks are full of them and this one pumps out almost 286 million gallons of water per day! It is one of the largest springs in the world. It was so "cool".

This is where it emerges out of the ground

 

Notice how the water is turquoise as it comes out of the ground...

Back in the car we went and we drove another two hours to Rolla where we met Noah who is a freshman at Missouri S & T and we took him to dinner at a local pizza place. It was so great to visit with him and to learn ALL the things he is already involved in at school. 

And, then, we drove the hour and forty minutes back to St. Louis pulling into our driveway at about 10:20. Whew! Steve and I were exhausted. Sally (who was cared for by Beckie) was glad to see us. 

The rest of the week went pretty well. The ward had a Labor Day picnic on Monday and we took Jair and Tabitha with us. Neither one of them can drive. The weather had finally cooled down a bit and it was a well attended event. 

The Afghan women's group resumed Tuesday morning (which used to be on Mondays) after a three week hiatus and civic orchestra had their first rehearsal that evening. I drove to Ballwin early so I could rehearse a musical number with Emily, Lucy and Quinn which we will be performing this coming Sunday, the 20th. Emily and Lucy will sing and Quinn in playing cello with me. Julina Hokensen is playing the piano for us. 

Steve had two doctor appointments Tuesday. One was with the pain doctor who gave him his second set of shots and declared him a good candidate for the ablation scheduled for the 23rd. His other doctor was a gastroenterologist and he now has a colonoscopy scheduled for the 30th. Lucky guy!

I spent much of my time preparing and distributing 65 tea towels for select Afghan women to embroider. The History Museum liked the first 24 we did for them and ordered 60 more!

Steve and I caught an episode of Strange New Worlds but didn't watch anything else during the week. and, we finally got some rain Wednesday into Thursday. That is our news for the week....

September heats up

September roared right in with triple digit temperatures.  But, life continued on with outdoor activities.  Yardwork is slowing down and, with the sunrise getting later and later, I don't have as much time each day to do anything. Removing bindweed and watering were my tasks this past week. And, I had to pull up my squash plants who had succumbed to the squash bugs. Sniff. Another task was to put in new window well covers. We bought new covers back in April thinking we could do the work ourselves. But, then it got to be summer and Steve's back got worse so heat and pain put the chore off until I had the idea to pay someone to do the installation for us. Ken was scheduled to come early Monday morning to take off the five hail damaged ones and put the new ones on.

  

    

Well, the removal went smoothly BUT Ken informed us that we had bought the wrong replacement sizes. Thankfully, I was able to return them and get our money back.  In addition, when he took off the domed covers on the east side of the house, he discovered that there were drains at the bottoms of all three so covers were not really needed.  He was able to clear out all the debris and now they drain well. 

 I went online and found two polycarbonate covers for the west windows and Ken returned Thursday to install them. He also rigged up a screened opening for the well with the dryer vent. A great feature is that these covers can easily be removed. I am very pleased with the results.

In spite of the heat, the St. Louis Civic Orchestra had their annual welcome back picnic Tuesday evening. Steve opted out but I went. I brought a gluten-free cake and piped happy birthday on it for our director. It was good to see everyone again.  

When I got home afterwards, there was time to watch a new episode of Strange New Worlds. It was a spooky one (I do NOT like scary things) and I had a restless sleep as a result with disturbing dreams.

Wednesday morning was Happy Hookers. I picked up Mary (Karen was not feeling well) and had to just drop her off and drive over to nearby Costco to get my glasses fixed. I was afraid I would have to get them replaced but, thankfully, they were fix-able. I got back to Happy Hookers in time to participate in the show and tell. 

Thursday we picked up the Element that we had dropped off Wednesday morning at Bates Tire and Auto.  It needed a few things done and now Leo is as good as new - well, as good as a car with over 225,000 miles can be!

Friday was a long day - hot outside and inside as I made FOURTEEN quarts of applesauce! Having a "peak savings event" with Ameren didn't help. (a program where we volunteer to have our thermostat raised for about four hours to conserve energy) I also needed to bake an apple cake but I waited to do it after 9:00 in the evening. And, it was worth it - the cake is delicious!

Because I worked so hard on Friday, I eased up on Saturday and Steve and I watched TWO movies!  Jack Ryan, Shadow Recruit in the morning and Thelma in the evening.  We had seen Jack Ryan before but it was a great watch the second time. I don't remember how I heard about Thelma but it was a cute, funny, quirky movie.  The rest of the day, we stayed indoors and I did light puttering. 

Have a nice Labor Day tomorrow!

 

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