Wow, June went by quickly!

Kirsti, Ryan, Alice and Ivan left our place Monday afternoon to spend the night in Columbia with Steven and Tamara before driving home on Tuesday and Wednesday. It was so great to have them here. I sent Kirsti home with three new plants - babies from my ever growing houseplants. I wasn't able to wave good-bye to them from the driveway because I was asked to pick up Tabatha, a blind friend from church, whose arranged ride home from the airport fell through. Not only did I need to get her but we also had to pick up her seeing-eye dog from the VA Hospital where she works and where a co-worker was dog sitting. Below is a cute photo of her dog with her in the car. Her name is Tori... She was very happy to be reunited with her person.

Speaking of dogs, here is Sally with her new haircut and in one of her favorite places - the back of the couch in the TV room. She hangs out there when Steve and I are watching something on TV.

And, Steve and I were able to do quite a bit of TV watching this week. Tuesday and Wednesday, we finished the last two episodes of season 2 of Star Trek Discovery. Whew, they were intense! We started season 3 last night and it was amazing. I think I need to watch it again...  We also watched Prince of Egypt that Elise loaned to us. We'd never seen it before and it was quite good.  Steve watched his June movie, Chariots of Fire, on Saturday afternoon while I was running errands and teaching lessons.

I didn't teach lessons at all while the Merrills were here so this past week they resumed. Understandably, my summer lessons are not as regular or frequent so I just had six students this week. Two of them were Larkin and Quinn who Emily brought to our house Thursday morning for a long overdue lesson. 

I saw my nurse practitioner Wednesday morning for my annual Medicare exam. I was given a clean bill of health for which I am grateful. Steve is doing physical therapy twice a week for his back. So far, he has not seen a great deal of improvement and he see's his pain doctor tomorrow to see what is next.

We both drove for English class Thursday night and I had a late meeting afterwards to finalize food plans for the stake Pioneer Trek that is planned for July 8-11. Happily, I am just in charge of the send-off breakfast Wednesday morning which means I don't have to push a handcart or camp on the ground in heat and humidity. 

Steve and I took two ladies from the ward with us to the temple Friday morning and we took two different ladies to the Tabernacle Choir Hollywood Bowl watch party Friday evening. The concert was actually held in Los Angeles on Wednesday and Thursday of this past week and it not only featured the Tabernacle Choir but several other guest artists including Donny Osmond. I had no idea he was just two years younger than me and one would never guess his age by his powerful and beautiful voice. He was my favorite part of the program. The watch party was a multi-stake event and they served hot dogs, chips, and Kona ice. Plus there were bounce houses and other games to play. It was a big to-do and I enjoyed seeing friends from all around St. Louis. 

My big project this past week was to prepare and distribute embroidery kits to Afghan women. We have a purchase order from the Missouri History Museum gift shop for 24 embroidered dish towels. So exciting and it means I don't have to sit at a booth for hours and hours hoping people will buy something. Below are the two designs we are making:

We had temperatures on Monday that didn't get out of the 70's! Our windows were open all day. But, it IS summer and it IS Missouri so we are now in some pretty miserable heat and humidity. But, my flowers are loving it!

I will close with a photo of a car I saw this past week. Notice the expiration date of the temp tags!!!! Unbelievable.

 

Fun around St. Louis

We returned from Johnson's Shut-Ins Tuesday afternoon.  Wednesday morning, Alice joined Larkin out in Ballwin for a Stake Primary activity in the morning. Ivan was not old enough to take part so Kirsti and I took him to the Science Center. He had a blast!

Ivan was also fascinated by all the musical instruments we have and he talked Poppy into letting him try to play his baritone.  It took a bit to teach him to buzz with his lips but, once he learned, he was a darn good brass player! He convinced Alice to give it a try. He got his mom to "play" the trumpet and we had more than one jam session during their visit.

Ivan also joined me on my morning walks Thursday, Friday and their last day on Monday, July 22nd. He had his own grabber and he was a delightful companion and a great helper. 

 

I showed him how to make a snapdragon blossom "talk" and below is a little reminder of their last day when he tried to do it.  It stayed on our back steps several days after they left as a sweet reminder of Ivan.

Beckie took Ryan and Kirsti to see Disclosure Day Wednesday evening so I was in charge of Alice and Ivan at home. We watched Toy Story 4 to prepare us for the Toy Story 5 (which we saw Monday morning with Beckie). I had only seen 4 once before and I loved it all over again. Laughed my head off! The fifth movie was also delightful and it had a timely message for parents (and kids).  

The Merrills went to the zoo on Thursday. It is too much walking for Steve and me so we stayed home. Friday morning, they visited Grant's Farm before they headed east to Greenwood, Indiana to visit Julina and Alex. It was a short visit and they were back in St. Louis by Saturday dinner. I had signed up to feed the missionaries several weeks ago so we all had delicious homemade pizza. Alice is a picky eater and I was so thrilled when she devoured the cheesy scrambled eggs and cinnamon breakfast cake I made Thursday night.

Saturday morning, while the Merrills were at Julina's, Steve and I fulfilled our assignment to help clean the meetinghouse. I left immediately after to supervise another Afghan women craft booth at an Archway Refugee Connections fundraising pickle ball tournament. It was outdoors, warm, and tiring. I was glad to pack up and go home to the air conditioning.

Johnson's Shut-Ins

We had another great experience at Johnson's Shut-Ins. We invited Larkin to join us and have some cousin time with the Merrills.  We drove the two-hour trip Monday morning, June 15th and we had perfect weather both days - not too hot, not too chilly. Clouds collected during our Tuesday morning swim and, as we were packing up, it rained on us a little as we walked to our car, but not a drenching rain. And, by the time we were driving home, the rain had stopped. Here are photos:

Larkin and Steve were quite adept at cairn stacking...

This is Steve's:

There were only two things that put a black mark on the whole trip. First was that Steve's and my air mattresses leaked. The camper cabin has only room to sleep 5 or 6 so Steve and I planned to sleep on the large porch on air mattresses. However, by midnight, mine was pretty much flat and Steve's had a slower leak. The electric outlet on the porch didn't seem to work and we didn't want to disturb sleeping bodies by hauling the mattresses back into the cabin to fill them out. SO, I had the brilliant idea of sleeping in the Honda Element (which we chose to drive since it has more room to haul stuff). Both the front and back seats can be made completely flat and I thought we could sleep on the elongated seats. Unfortunately, the seats are not completely even in their flat-ness and Steve's back could only tolerate about 20 minutes of it before he returned to his slowly leaking air mattress.  After he left, I was able to configure my body over the two back seats and I slept there the rest of the night. Not a great sleep, however.  Here is what my bed looked like: 

The other black mark - SNAKES! Monday there was a water snake sunning on a rock by the far shore and also swimming in the shallowest swim pool. Happily, it kept to itself but it was back again Tuesday morning. And, Monday evening, as Ryan and Ivan were walking down the cement path to the bathrooms, they encountered a copperhead!!!! And, it was in strike mode. When Larkin, Steve and I went to the bathrooms a little later, we avoided the cement path and chose the road and Steve and Larkin saw another snake in the road. It was getting dark so we don't know if it was the same copperhead or not. Here is the photo Ryan took: 

HORRIFYING. We are going to the Shut-Ins again in August with the Southerlands and this might just be my last year to go.

 

A full week and a family gather on June 14th

We have a new living room window!!! Behold the before and after photos:

The seal was lost on our original window which caused the foggy look. 

On Sunday, the 7th, Steve was released as a counselor in the Elder's Quorum presidency. And, we fed the new set of Elders assigned to our ward. We now have two sets of missionaries.

I finished the t-shirt quilt during the week - hooray! On Monday, the 8th, I got to deal with the help desk for Hewlett Packard regarding our printer. When we switched internet providers, the printer stopped talking to the laptop and, after an hour on the phone, we finally figured out why. The printer cannot talk in the 5G language of our fiberoptic internet. I had to call AT&T and have them create a 2.5G line for the printer. Then I had to call HP again. What a pain in the neck!

On Friday morning, Steve and I visited a family of two of my students, Ben and Maria. They recently built a new house and got a new puppy (a doodle named Nova) so I had to see both. 

Kirsti, Ryan, Alice and Ivan arrived Friday evening! Saturday, I already had a previous commitment to run the Archway Refugee Connections booth at a Grand Market so that is where I was from 9:00 to 1:00. As usual, we didn't sell as much as I had hoped and I think this will be the last time we participate. Maliha was my helper and you can see her in the photo below. She also insisted on taking a photo with me in it. This Grand Market was supposed to be outside but it rained. In the photo with me, there is a basket with braided bracelets that was our biggest seller.

The Merrills stopped by the market in the morning and, in the afternoon, they spent time in Ballwin with the Southerlands so I took the opportunity to attend a senior recital of a young woman in our stake. She is a phenomenal cellist and, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree because her parents are also amazing musicians. Here she is performing with her mother and father. Aside from the Shostakovich cello concerto (which I dozed through), it was a lovely program.

Saturday evening, we all squeezed into our little TV room and watched Attack of the Clones (Star Wars episode 2) since Alice and Ivan have been working their way through the Star Wars movies. 

Sunday afternoon, we had five of our seven children with us. The weather was perfect and we enjoyed dinner out on the deck. Avert your eyes from the peeling paint on a deck that was supposed to not need any more care over the years. Stupid paint. It was a really nice evening all together. We sorely missed Sarah and Julina...

(l-r) Ryan, Kirsti and Alice Merrill, Noah, Steven, Emily, Larkin, Ivan, Lucy, Quinn, Joe 


below Elise and Beckie, Quinn and Noah 

above: Steve, Emily, Elise, Beckie

below: Ivan and Larkin

 

Back in the saddle again (mostly)

 I am happy to report that my energy is back, for the most part. I feel like, going forward, I should make it a habit of not trying to do too much. And, I'm OK with that....

As of yesterday, I FINALLY put into the ground all the seeds that I had collected to grow this year. From here on out, my early morning yardwork will be to keep the weeds from taking over everything - and harvesting when things get ripe. The Easter lily I got a couple of years ago and planted in the backyard bloomed beautifully this past week. 

I also painted the trunks of the cherry and apricot trees to prevent sunburn which is a real thing with fruit trees. The apricot tree was already showing signs of bark damage because of the sun. I hope I took care of the problem in time.

You can see our raspberry patch in the background. It is doing so well this year, as are our blackberries. Steve put some plastic netting on top of both to keep the birds from eating everything. He and I dug up about thirty raspberry prima canes (first year plants) on Thursday evening to share with Emily and Joe. I dropped Steve off at the temple Friday morning and drove on to the Southerlands where Joe helped me plant them in their existing raspberry patch. I also shared three blackberry plants that were trying to grow in our backyard turn-around.  That day kind of wore me out but, happily, I was able to have a restful afternoon. 

Steve tries to attend the temple twice each week - I just go once a week - and our trip this week was on Tuesday evening with our friend Carol Schnitker for a ward baptism trip. 

We had to have our dishwasher repaired and we had to buy a new DVD/Blu-ray player.  We also switched internet providers so it has been a week full of technology interactions. That was sometimes stressful. But, we got to relax in front of an episode of Star Trek Discovery, the documentary Won't You Be My Neighbor and the movie The Horse Whisperer. The Mr. Rogers documentary was really good. The Horse Whisperer had gorgeous scenery and a super young Scarlett Johansen but it could have been shorter by at least thirty minutes. And, Steve and I had issues with the mother in the story and the dumb decisions she made. Happily, it had a good ending.  

Steve and I drove to the meetinghouse on Saturday so I could put two long banquet tables side by side and tie Sarah's t-shirt quilt. It went very quickly, especially with Steve reading Dave Barry to me. When we finished, we drove to nearby Dierbergs and bought FOUR half-gallons of Blue Bell ice cream (there were too many delicious flavors to just pick two!) All that is left of the t-shirt quilt now is to sew up the edges and it will be ready to send back to Utah with the Merrills later this month.  And, I am almost finished with the current batch of Days for Girls shields. While it sounds like a lot of work, I actually do my sewing projects while sitting down watching Jeopardy and I stop when the game show is over. Both the shields and the quilt have been in the works for over a month so it is nice to have some completion.