Grandkids time

We went to St. Louis over the weekend. We left at 2:00 on Friday to make the 4:00 temple session. That allowed us to be at Emily and Joe’s by 6:30 so they could take Noah to the St. Louis City Museum for his 4^th birthday. Yes, Noah turned four on Friday. We gave him a basket full of play birthday food – cake slices with removable candles, pretend ice cream scoops for pretend cones, and lots of other fun play foods. You will have to check Emily’s blog for photos of his birthday party from the previous weekend (I am not sure when she will post the pictures) but there were remnants of the super-hero party décor when we arrived. She made super-hero capes for each guest and then took their picture with a backdrop of big boxes made to look like sky scrapers. The “raw” photos are delightful.

Here is Steve and Lucy before she went to bed.

While Emily, Joe, and Noah were at the museum, Steve and I babysat Lucy (who slept the whole time) and watched “The Family Man”. We stayed overnight, enjoyed a waffle breakfast

and caught a 9:00 temple session and then took the grandkids to the zoo while Emily and Joe went to the temple. This stroller is amazing.

Steve and Lucy at lunch

Noah got to ride the carousel all by himself because he was tall enough. He was pretty jazzed about that.

We had hoped to visit some antique shops later in the afternoon until we learned that most closed early on Saturday so we just hung out and fixed sweet potatoes for the Lindel Ward Thanksgiving dinner that night. Mmmmm. We drove back to Columbia afterwards.

Monday I watched Ike Egan (I visit teach his mom) for the morning. His family is moving and so I offered to keep Ike for a bit so Annie could work on sorting and cleaning. He is a few months younger than Noah and loves to come to “sister Jeanne’s” house. We fed the outside birds, took kitchen scraps out to the mulch pile, he watched Mother Goose that our kids grew up with. I have been singing the somewhat-lame songs ever since. But, it brought back nice memories of earlier years. Finally, we made apple-turkeys. Here is mine and Ike’s side-by-side.

(guess which one is Ike's.....I wonder if he was channeling Picasso?)

Sarah is now back in Columbia. She arrived safely Monday night. Sadie was pretty excited to see her, to be sure. Julina will drive as far as St. Louis on Wednesday and stay with Emily. Then both she and the Southerlands will come to Columbia early Thursday morning – in time to watch the Thanksgiving parade. There is no CIS this week so I am enjoying my extra time. Monday it was getting blood taken out of me (to see whether I am really diabetic or just need to cut back on my sugar or I will be). Today it was doing some Thanksgiving food shopping. Tomorrow it is going back to Proctor Park with Sarah and Steven (he and I went there quite a bit last summer to collect rocks for our yards) to get more rocks to put against the fence where Trissy CONTINUES TO DIG AND GET OUT!!!!! I swear I don’t know how she is doing it. Or why! Now, she may be getting out by jumping over the fence – perhaps back by the mulch pile which is piled high enough that the fence could be jump-able – but she is digging, too and the raspberry plant next to the hole will never be the same, I fear.

p.s.

Forgot to write about these:

I drove up near Salisbury, MO Friday afternoon when I was done at CMU in Fayette to buy pecans. Mmmmmmm. Pecan pie for Thanksgiving, for sure. This farm raises pecans and buffalos. I drove by a small herd on my way to the store. Cute.

Then, I drove to Boonville for a dentist appointment. Look ma! No cavities.

Ruth Marshall is currently in Candlelight - for a two-week visit right now. She and one of her cats - Fuzzy Bo. They went on Thursday. Hopefully, she will like it enough to stay for good. She really needs to live there. I go by the house and feed her other three cats right now until we can find homes for them. When I go to visit, she is still in the "why am I here?" stage. But, she does admit that the people are friendly and the food is good. Cross your fingers.

Beckie dog-sat Stohli and Nikko over the weekend so we had a house full of crazy dogs for 24 hours. Sadie got a bath and looks beautiful. Steve got a haircut and looks spiffy. He and I attended the YSA branch conference today.

Oh, Netflix report: Steve and I watched "Friendly Persuasion" - an old Gary Cooper movie about Quakers during the Civil War. Good. I saw "Evening Primrose" on Instant-View. It was less than an hour long (because it was an episode of a sixties television show). Kind of "Twilight Zone" type. Anthony Perkins was in both films. And, thankfully, he did not have a knife in his hand in either one :) Finally, I watched "Green Hornet" and it was DUMB. I shoulda listened to Beckie on that one. I will never watch another Seth Rogen movie again.

Great weekend

I had a studio recital Friday evening. Here they all are - ready to play. It is a great group of students (and parents). The girl in all black (right in front of the cute little girl) turned 16 that day and she was presented with eleven roses by eleven boys who all were waiting for her birthday to take her on a date. They all left right after her performance (she played first) and I think she went on eleven mini-dates with them?


Saturday morning, Beckie, Ethan - a piano student - and I drove up to Moberly area to see a litter of 4-week old Yorkie puppies. They were SOOOO CUTE. Here are a few photos with the wee ones.....shhhhhhhh, don't tell Max or Sadie!







Mid-day on Saturday was the annual celiac support group holiday potluck where EVERYTHING WAS GLUTEN-FREE! It was glorious!



I then stopped at Goodwill where I found TWO pairs of jeans that were long enough in the leg and high enough in the waist to suit me (no more low-rise pants for this girl. nuh uh.)

Finally, I came home to our brand new smooth-top range. Our old one was OLD when we bought the house 16 years ago - probably was the original range - and on Monday evening, when Beckie tried to bake something, the bottom oven element was stone cold. So, we mosied over to Lowes Wednesday night and found this one on sale. I think I am going to love the smooth cooktop and the oven has three racks and has a convection feature.

Here is the new:


and good-bye to the old


If you look closely, you will see my latest sewing project - dust covers for the countertop appliances with matching pot holders. But, these are not just ordinary pot holders but gluten-free specific ones - hence they hang on the knobs to keep them from mingling with flour covered pot holders.

Here are two more shots of the appliance covers. Notice the pretty big plate that Beckie gave me for Christmas and that inspired the fabric colors.

Busy weekend

After the excitement of Halloween, there is not much to blog about. Last weekend was our stake conference which meant it was pretty busy for both Steve and me. Steve had THREE talks to prepare! And these were not little five-minute jobs but at least fifteen to twenty minutes which he also had to be ready to cut down in case those ahead of him went longer than they were assigned. He has been pretty busy these past two weeks or so working on the talks. They were awesome, by the way. I had to do prepare an hour-long training meeting Saturday afternoon for the next year’s Relief Society Sunday curriculum. And I had to fix a boat-load of gluten-free pasta primavera for the meal that the stake Relief Society serves at noon after the Sunday session to the stake presidency and the mission president and temple president and their wives and whoever else has traveled to visit our stake conference. The number is around 20-25 so not too huge a crowd but it was still a triple batch of pasta. With LOTS of vegetable chopping. But, mmmmm, it turned out delicious and we are having leftovers for dinner tonight J Just to make the weekend even more busy, CIS had their Autumn Open House Saturday morning and I was asked if the CIS string quartet could provide music while potential parents gathered before opening meeting. And, Columbia Civic Orchestra had their first concert Sunday afternoon so I dashed over to the Missouri Theater after the Sunday luncheon for that performance. Being the first Sunday, we also had “cookies” that evening after supper. I plopped into bed Sunday night one tired girl.

So, that is all our news. Sarah comes home next week – YAY! Beckie is now working full-time at MBS (Missouri Book Services) which means a regular schedule and benefits. She is very happy for this because it will give her consistency as she works on her thesis. Trissy has not dug out of the back yard since Halloween. We are trying to keep her in the house more regularly to prevent her escapes

eeeeeee, scary puppies

Sadie was a shark for Halloween



Max was a mummy



Here they are together



me with the puppies


terrified Beckie (notice her crazy Halloween hair!)


Trissy, on the other hand, went costumed as herself and dug
her way out of the back yard (again!) to try her hand at trick-
or-treating. Luckily, our neighbors brought her home.

Here is her most recent escape route.....

the statuette I placed in front of the hole two days
ago was clearly not a deterrent.



this is an earlier hole that I blocked with a HUGE
rock.


Here is the first hole that we mended with a green pole,
wire, and nails.


Trissy also digs under our house beneath the deck.
You can see where we have tried to place wire
mesh over the hole. We will go back and try to
reinforce this again.

Scary how long it has been

The month of October is over and my last post was at the beginning of the month. So, fasten your seatbelts, ladies and gentlemen, as we whip through the last 27 days at the Lambsons…….

First, I must mention the mid-Missouri Renaissance Fair which we attended on Saturday, October 8^th. This was NOT the famous one in Bonner Springs, Kansas but the “in-famous” (more than famous) one in Hatton, Missouri. All Renaissance festivals, I am sure, had humble beginnings and one could not find a more humble fair in Hatton which was set up down a dusty gravel road in an open field also used for paintballing (although not at the same time, thankfully). There were just two food booths – one did serve the traditional turkey legs. The one magician act featured a fellow who was clearly inebriated. The three singing acts I heard at the musical stage struggled with tonality. And I believe there were just four booths for shopping – however, if one was NOT looking for medieval weaponry or chain mail, there were only two. BUT, it still beats waiting in a long line of cars for two hours to visit the local pumpkin festival. AND, it gave Noah a place to wear his new suit of armor – his reward for potty training.

Max, Steven, and Sadie at the fair

We got to see Noah again the next Saturday, October 15^th, in St. Louis. His pre-school had their fall festival and Steve and I stopped in after an early morning temple session. The weather was perfect – sunny and crisp - and it was great to see Emily and family for just a few hours. Noah LOVED the bouncy house and spent most of his time inside. He did manage to carve time out for a pony ride. Lucy was adorable, of course.

Later on that day, Steve and I drove up to the St. Louis North stake center for some training meetings with General Auxiliary Presidency members: the Relief Society got to listen to Barbara Thompson, the Primary heard Rosemary Wixom, and the Young Women heard Elaine Dalton. What a wonderful opportunity to listen and learn from these sisters.

I got to visit a torture chamber in October – no, not at the Renaissance fair, not at a museum in St. Louis, but at Columbia's own University Hospital. And I was the victim! Well, it was not really a torture chamber but I had some neurological testing done that seemed pretty scary – sending shocks down my legs with a taser-like device and then sticking a pin into my muscles to register their strength. The next day, I was starved and then made to drink a disgusting liquid and then they took my blood. All this to see why I am experiencing tingling and numbness in my feet. The conclusion appears to be that I am pre-diabetic because I failed the glucose-tolerance test. Sigh. I have an appointment with my family doctor in November and will most likely visit with a dietician after that. Eating at the Lambson home just got even more complicated.

October was a BUSY month for the string quartet. Whooeee, there was a gig every weekend. I didn’t play in all of them but I still had to coordinate them and arrange a silly song by the Flaming Lips (!?!??!!!) for one of them.

Saving the best for last – Steve and I got to fly to Maine for five days to visit Sarah and to see the beauties of Maine in autumn splendor. We were able to sample some of the outdoor glories of the area as well as the quaint towns and shops. Because we flew into Manchester, New Hampshire, we were very near to Pawtuckaway State Park where Sarah worked last summer so we took a small explore around before driving up to Camden.

Here is where Sarah pitched her tent at Pawtuckaway.

We enjoyed Acadia National Park one day,

Sarah looking westward on top of Cadillac Mountain in Acadia.

We drove up to Mount Battie just outside Camden another day,

Here we are on top of Battie

and walked around Birch Point State Park on another day.

Steve and Sarah exploring the rocky beach at
Birch Point

We walked the almost full mile of breakwater out to a lighthouse.

Whaaaat happened to Steve? I tried twice
to upload this photo and both times it
came out looking like this. Very Picasso-ish,
I think. It is Steve at the breakwater.

Lots of beautiful rocky beaches.

Lots of pines and firs and spruces among the beautifully colored hardwood trees. We shopped in the towns of Rockport, Camden, and Bar Harbor. Lots of tourists from cruise ships parked in the harbor. We visited the Camden farmer’s market

Steve at the market....

where I bought a jar of pickled fiddle heads !?! Guests for Thanksgiving dinner this year will get to sample them. Sarah took us on a tour of Merryspring Nature Center where she has been working all year.

Sarah at Merryspring

And, we got to attend the Rockland branch on Sunday and hear Sarah give a talk and meet all the wonderful people who have been so good to her all year.

This is Sarah with Kathy, her landlady.
They are standing in Kathy's breakfast nook. Kathy's
house is over a hundred years old and full of antiques.

Sarah has posted many more beautiful photos from our time together on her blog. Check it out...

One last photo of Camden's famous "oreo" cows

Conference Weekend

Last weekend was general conference weekend and Steve and I enjoyed a wonderful two days listening to all the sessions. Before the Saturday morning session, we took a bike ride on the Bear Creek Trail to check out the colorful leaves





Then, while watching the Saturday session, I made rolls and cinnamon rolls. Mmmmmm.


In between the Saturday sessions, we dashed over to Aldi to grocery shop. I should have taken a picture of our dining room table and kitchen counters FULL of grocery sacks.

On Sunday, we were invited to the watch at the Wiles home. Here is Sheila and Carroll and Tamara (multi-tasking with her coupon clipping)

Steven, Steve, and Tamara again.....

In between the Sunday sessions, Sheila offered a delightful lunch of cold cuts, veggies, cheese ball (by Tamara), deviled eggs, chips, and a wonderful banana split cake that was gluten-free :)

Beckie dog-sat all weekend - Brandon's two adorable Russian miniature terriers, Nico and Stoli. Here they are with Trissy and Max. Our home felt like the movie Moonstruck with all the crazy dogs....

Poor Sadie was a bit overwhelmed!

She visited the groomers on Friday and looks just beautiful!

One of her favorite positions for belly rubs. Notice how she sits on her bum?