We had a “Heart Attack” – from the Bear Creek Ward Young Women…….

And, while they were giving us a heart attack, Steve accidently gave THEM all heart attacks. The dogs heard the girls taping paper hearts to the front door and started barking. He thought it was me coming home so he opened the front door and startled the poor young women out of their wits!

Some photos of the Valentine décor around the house

The day passed by without much hoopla – it was a regular busy-old Monday (my busiest days this semester) and the evening was spent with our regular phone calls to Sarah and Elise. I didn’t even dye the milk pink!

Our most “romantic” evening was on Friday, the 11^th. The stake presidency hosted a lovely dinner for the bishops and branch presidents and their wives. It was held in the primary room at the stake center and the decorations were very Valentiney. We all were asked to bring a photo of ourselves as a young engaged or married couple and then we told briefly how we met and one trait we most admire about each other. It was so entertaining to hear and see everyone’s early history. Steve and I happened to be last. I told the “how we met” part and that I love his sense of humor. And then Steve closed the evening with the BEST finish that ever could be. He described what he most loves about me by reciting – completely by memory – the poem “She Walks In Beauty Like the Night” by Lord Byron. WOW!

(It made me fall in love with him all over again.)

She walks in beauty, like the night

Of cloudless climes and starry skies;

And all that's best of dark and bright

Meet in her aspect and her eyes:

Thus mellowed to that tender light

Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

One shade the more, one ray the less,

Had half impaired the nameless grace

Which waves in every raven tress,

Or softly lightens o'er her face;

Where thoughts serenely sweet express

How pure, how dear their dwelling place.

And on that cheek, and o'er that brow,

So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,

The smiles that win, the tints that glow,

But tell of days in goodness spent,

A mind at peace with all below,

A heart whose love is innocent!

The weekend was full of LOTS of church meetings – mine were on Saturday, Steve’s were on Sunday. Whew – good thing we have adjusted our schedules to facilitate more sleep at night cause afternoon naps are getting more and more rare.

Sadie has adjusted to being back in Columbia. Every time I pet her, though, I feel sad for Sarah. For a few nights at the beginning, she was waking us up twice to go potty and I finally figured out that with two big old bodies in a small bed that were always shifting positions, we were actually waking HER up and, we all know what we have to do when we are awakened in the middle of the night….. On that same note, I am pleased to report that Sadie went “accident-free” yesterday and, it looks like she might do the same today. Woohoo.

SNOW-CATION!

This past week has been one for the record books. On Monday, the freezing rain/drizzle started. Schools were let out early. I called Central Methodist University and told them I was not comfortable driving up there and was told “we don’t blame you – the roads are BAD”. Then, Tuesday morning, the snow began to fall and, due to the forecasts, all the schools closed ahead of time- even MU (which never closes for anything!) That afternoon, Steve and I decided to shovel what had already fallen so that when the storm was over, we would not have to shovel all 18 inches. Here is Steve working on the driveway

It finally stopped Tuesday night and it was so deep, MU cancelled again for Wednesday. Central Methodist closed. The Mall closed! Everything was shut down Tuesday and Wednesday and we were told to stay off the roads. By Thursday, the extreme frigid temperatures were upon us and places were still digging out so MU stayed closed – THREE DAYS! Unheard of! All the grade schools stayed closed on Friday but MU and the other colleges around the area were opened up again.

It was a surreal week. Very quiet and peaceful. We both got projects done. Watched several movies. Steve and I discovered with three days together that retirement probably will be OK – although we WILL have to have two computers by then. Steven had to go to work all week so Steve used the truck in 4-wheel drive to take him back and forth for much of the week.

Thursday morning, we woke up to no television signal and no internet. CenturyLink repairmen came Friday, Saturday, and Monday to work out the problem. Finally, yesterday (Tuesday) one of the guys thought the electronic “noise” on the line, which was so “loud” that it interfered with the router capturing the internet/television signal, might be due to all our snow! He went out to the front yard (we have underground utilities) and proceeded to dig away snow and chink out ice from around the box and voila – he solved the problem! Having no internet was a mixed blessing – ignorance is bliss and then again, it sometimes is not. I have been at this computer all morning just catching up.

Sadie is back. I am sure you all know by now that Sarah’s landlady had given Sadie her walking papers. Having Sadie back here is with such mixed emotions. My heart truly breaks for Sarah and, yet, I am happy to have Sadie back with me. I am so proud of how Sarah handled things in the brief month she had her. Hats off to Beckie who took the time to fly back to Boston to rendezvous with Sarah (who drove down from Maine) and brought Sadie back with her in a carry-on pet bag. We took care of Max while she was gone. He mostly moped for Beckie but occasionally seemed to regard us as acceptable caregivers in her absence.

Steve and I made a quick trip to the St. Louis Temple Friday night. Our Saturdays are so busy this month that it was the only way to make the temple work. We had some church friends over for dinner last night – and it is “Cookies” tonight with two young couples invited to get to know them better. We are cutting our “cookies nights” to just twice a month this year – trying to eat healthier and lose some pounds.

Do-Over?

Lately, I have been reading through the new handbook and reading or listening to talks by Church leaders that are especially directed to parents raising young families. And, I sometimes think I would like to have a “do-over” with raising my kids. At other times, when chatting with my visiting teachers and discussing the challenges we face today (compared to what the early Relief Society sisters faced), I think, “whew, I am so glad I am NOT raising a family today”. But, the bottom line is that my kids are now all adults and my parental duties are greatly diminished. And, thankfully, I can say that I am extremely proud of how ALL of my children have turned out. Their work ethic, for example, is remarkable. And, I believe that much of that can be attributed to paper routes: Our Sunday-Wednesday family paper route and the daily routes that many of them had. So, I would like to reminisce and honor my children here with some photos of them on the paper route……

This is when we won Carrier of the Month in the summer of 1990

Steven with a load of papers! (he is only 8 here in summer 1990)

Elise on the route in the summer of 1990

This is in January of 1996. Sarah and Kirsti (with her little home-made carrier bag) taking Butler with them on the route

January is wrapping up and that means that Steve and I are celebrating another wedding anniversary. 36 years! See how we looked so long ago:

To celebrate, we went out to eat on Friday night. Since I had to be down at the Lake of the Ozarks that evening to play in a string quartet that accompanied the 5^th Grade All-City Honor’s Choir in their performance at Tan-Ta-Ra for the Missouri Music Educators Association, Steve joined me and we thought we would find a restaurant down there. Steve let me choose the place and, weirdly enough, I really wanted to go to Golden Corral. It is so difficult to go out to eat with celiac disease and I know I can find lots of plain meat (mmmm – steak) and vegetables (I love Brussels sprouts and broccoli and cauliflower) at Golden Corral. Plus, it is all-you-can-eat! The perfect choice – only, there is no Golden Corral at the Lake. There isn’t even one in Jefferson City. So, we had to drive all the way back up to Columbia to eat. Happily, there is a Culvers at the Lake and a raspberry concrete with cashews was a perfect appetizer until we got to eat “real” food.

Also with the end of January, it means all my snowman décor goes back in the attic for another year. I love all my little snowmen and here are some of the many.

We drove to St. Louis yesterday – caught the 9:00 temple session and had some quality time with Noah afterward. We brought back several tubs of baby clothes that were being stored in our garage and, as Steve and Joe were carrying them in from the car, Noah noticed our gold Volvo and said “that’s a cute little car”. Just like that. How hilarious. Emily had a photo shoot and a lunch date so we didn’t get to see much of her but, in the little window of time we did have, she showed me two trash bags FULL of adorable baby girl clothes (many brand-new, never worn) given to her by a good friend. Wow. I can’t believe that Lucy is going to be here in less than three months! I better get busy on that blessing dress, hadn’t I?

SNOW DAY!

As you can see, we have had snow again and the ruler puts the amount between 9 and 10 inches! Notice how the snow is peaked on the bird house? Thank goodness for our Nissan Frontier with four-wheel drive! I took Steve to work this morning and had no problems navigating - even the roads that hadn't been plowed (like ours)


The snow has stopped now and the sun is out and everything looks so beautiful!

When we visited Emily last Saturday, Noah had to try on grandpa's hat......


Sarah left behind Sadie's little bed (which she never used) and I decided to put it on the purple couch to see if Alfred would adopt it. As you can see, he has. And, it saves be having to vacuum the other couch for cat hair.

January Birthdays

Before Kirsti left for BYU, we had a birthday dinner for her. Here are some photos from that meal.

Smile, Kirsti!!!

One week later, we celebrated Jason Bell’s birthday on Friday, the 7^th, with a lovely meal where Jason provided and prepared the main dish – paella (a dish from Spain, of course). The missionaries, Steven, Tamara, and Beckie were also present. On Sunday, the 9^th, we celebrated Melanie’s birthday.

Noah had his third birthday back in November and I baked him a train cake at that time. Recall that his birthday week was when Emily was going through all her physical difficulties and Noah spent several days with me. Beckie drove him back home to St. Louis on his birthday and took his cake with him so I didn’t get to see him blow out the candles. It is a small cake pan and I had lots of leftover batter so I baked another train cake thinking I would decorate it for Thanksgiving. Well, with too many goodies that week, I kept it frozen until last Friday when I pulled it out and decorated it. The next day, Steve and I drove to St. Louis (to the temple) and then to the Southerlands. I brought in the second train cake and Noah was quite excited to celebrate his birthday again – complete with song and candles.

Finally, Steve’s birthday is today (and so is Kirsti’s) but we had his birthday dinner last night. He wanted an ice cream pie – mmmmmm.

You will remember that Steve and I gave each other (with the help of kids) a flat-screen HDTV and here is how it looks out of the box and on the bookcase.

During Christmas, because the tree was in front of the bookcase, we had to put the TV on top of the stereo where we have been displaying the beautiful Christus statue. It seemed to send a wrong message – that we worshipped the television instead of the Savior – so now, Christ is back in his proper place (notice that, positioned in front of the seascape my dad painted years ago, it looks like he is either creating the world or calming the seas) and the TV looks very nice nestled in the bookcase. (However, don’t look too closely or you will see that Steve and I lacked the proper tools to make the shelves look professional).

As for the rest of the week, I have been canning venison - 21 pints worth! A friend shot a deer for us (with a bow and arrow right next to Target at the Mall!) and we took it up to a meat processor in Centralia to have it cut into roasts, tenderloins, stew meat, and the rest was ground up. I cooked up a huge crockpot of venison stew on Friday and shared it with the Southerlands. It turned out really tasty.

Snow fell Monday afternoon and into the evening (totaling six inches) so we had a snow day on Tuesday. And, surprisingly, on Wednesday, too. But, I had to drive to Fayette on Wednesday to begin my third year of teaching at Central Methodist University. Fortunately, by that time, the roads were not too bad.

So, all in all, it was a pretty good week here.

Trissy’s Favorite Things

by Steve Lambson

(with apologies to Oscar Hammerstein II)

Digging in gardens and getting all muddy

Breathing on Jeanne ‘cause I think she’s my buddy

Rolling on dead stuff to make my heart sing

These are a few of my favorite things.

Barking at squirrels and barking at Norma

Barking at golfers is strictly pro-forma

Running downstairs when they put me to bed

Favorite things dancing ‘round in my head

Going outside and then coming right back in

Going outside and then coming right back in

Going outside and then coming back in

These favorite things would make any dog grin.

I will not bite, I will not growl,

I won’t be perplexed

But when I’m subdued I will simply dream

Of which favorite thing comes next!

Departures

The week between Christmas and New Year held great promise but then, I got the flu Tuesday night and I was sick all the rest of the week. I have not had the flu in probably 20 years and it knocked me flat. Added to being sick was everyone leaving. Julina left Monday. Elise left Wednesday (although not after she had to linger for many hours waiting for her cat, Tonks, to appear from her unobtainable-to-human-hands hiding place behind the furnace. Tonks must really hate to travel in her pet carrier because this is not the first time she has hidden whenever she sees Elise making ANY packing preparations. In fact, Elise actually drove away and we planned to rendezvous with her mid-January. It was then that Tonks decided to come out. Kirsti heard her on the stairs and grabbed her and stuffed her into a bedroom and called Elise. Fortunately, Elise was only about 30 minutes away so she turned around and came back to retrieve her BAD CAT.

(yes, Tonks, hide your face in shame)

Sarah and Sadie left on Thursday for their epic journey back to Maine. Before leaving, however, Sarah had to get a different car as her old Saturn was just not worth repairing. Thankfully, before I got sick, we were able to locate a newer car – another Saturn, interestingly – and get all the paperwork done before departure day. Here is Sarah with her new car packed to the rafters.

(put some shoes on, Kirsti!)

And, on Monday, Kirsti left to go back to BYU. Notice that she is standing in front of another gold car which is not Sarah's.

That would be our "new" car - a 2001 Volvo that our neighbor was selling. He has a foreign car repair shop and had this vehicle he had fixed up and was ready to sell it. I LOVE it and plan to have it for a LONG time.

My last photo is of Sadie looking at me from Sarah's car as they get ready to pull away. SNIFF....


This week, I started out feeling pretty glum after last week. But, as I have continued to improve in health and as I have been able to tackle projects hanging over my head (putting away Christmas was a biggie), I have come out of my doldrums so that I can say that today, Saturday, January 8th, things are pretty much back to normal and life is good.