remember when

This is a photo of my mom, Florin Young, with Emily (who was known as Emmie in those days) and Juli. It is from June 1979 and taken in Woodbridge, Virginia where we were living at the time. Elise was to have been born by this time but she decided to come in July, long after my parents left to go back to California. We were in Virginia for Steve's military training. He was attending officer basic at Fort Belvoir. In fact, when this photo was shot, he was most likely at the week-long bivouac (fancy word for camping and playing soldier) of which my due-date fell right in the middle.

I was given this photo by my friend, Jamie Kaye, in her Christmas present to me. She also included a note written to her and her mother by my mom. It is dated November 24, 2002 - written six days before she passed away. I love the books she gave me but these two pieces of history are even more special.

Ho Ho Ho

Max and Sadie get into the Christmas spirit!

We were in St. Louis Friday night and Saturday and Noah went to a party where he made this graham cracker house.



Lucy, our little love


Suger cookies we decorated with Noah


Below is a project I finished in November. These are the chairs to Beckie's dining room table that I recovered (finally!)



This looks like a desk but it is actually the cabinet to an old organ. Solid walnut. My go-to repair man, Bob, cut wood for the shelf. Sarah stained it. Voila! A place for plants, CDs, and other stuff in my music studio


Here is Santa's ski slope all set up. Bring back memories, kids????


My birthday presents - the green Adirondack chairs and the outdoor grill


Some other news I forgot to post earlier - Bear Creek Ward has a new bishopric. Larry Jespersen was called and he asked for Ryan Hatcher and Jimmy O'Loughlin for his counselors. They will be so great! Our former bishop, Ladd Egan, took a job in Utah with the CBS station. (he, like Steven, is in broadcasting).

long overdue update

Today is the first morning when I don’t have to leave at 7:15 to teach orchestra at CIS. We are done for the year. I have a piano student coming in about 20 minutes. So, in that tiny amount of time I will to try to catch up on events since Thanksgiving

First of all, Thanksgiving week was a little bubble of calm and happiness – no school to worry about, very few students to teach, lots of family around me and instant phone/skype access to children far away. My birthday was great – we went to the Muppet Movie to celebrate. On Saturday, we bought a lovely Christmas tree that Beckie heartily approved of because it is fat enough to hold all the ornaments.

We have decked our halls for Christmas. I like our current way of decorating – in small steps each day. One day was just the living room tree, another day was the Peanuts stuff in our room, my studio took three days. Yesterday, I finally put up the last decoration – the Santa’s Ski Slope. I admit having a bizarre attachment to that thing. The motor doesn’t work anymore so one has to manually place the skiiers on the ramp. It is too wide to fit under the tree where it is located in my studio so it is out in the middle of the room. BUT, it was my gift from Steve in one of our poorest Christmases and so it means a lot to me and I will not allow it to be thrown away even though everyone suggests it year after year.

Christmas goodies have not taken such a front seat this year – mostly because of me. When I was going through the neurological testing, there was some concern by the neuro doc that I might be pre-diabetic. Well, that really opened up my eyes to my eating habits – which were actually not THAT bad but when I started looking at my diet with a diabetic lens, I realized that I could be doing a LOT better. After a visit to my family practice doctor, (who does not like the term “pre-diabetic” because, in reality, everyone is pre-diabetic depending on their weight and eating habits. You eat more sugar and are heavy, you are just farther along on the spectrum leading to diabetes), and after some blood tests, I am not as “pre-diabetic” as the neuro doc had me believe (my A1C was not consistent with diabetes). Nevertheless, I have “seen the light” and we are not doing so many goodies this year and the ones we are making are mostly being given away (to make other people diabetic – kind of twisted, don’t you think?).

News about Ruth. Her son and his wife, Richard and Roseanne, came to Columbia the week after Thanksgiving to get her permanently settled into Candlelight. It only took a few off-the-wall phone calls from Ruth to Richard during the first couple of weeks living there to convince him that she is truly not in her right mind much of the time. She “sundowns” which is a term describing the confusion that old people often get in the evening and night time. Ruth now has her room furnished with her nice bedroom set and her house is pretty much shut down until spring when her kids return to put it on the market. Fuzzy Bo, the cat, LOVES Candlelight. The other three cats are now living with God. Sarah and Roseanne and I corralled them into pet carriers and we toted them off to the Humane Society. Two were pretty sick and the third was wild enough that no one would adopt it. I have the scars on my arm as proof. Whooee! that was an adrenalin rush catching that one. I try to see Ruth at Candlelight a couple times a week and she is adjusting well, I think. I know her kids are sleeping MUCH better now knowing that she is safe and eating well.

We acquired Ruth’s little chest freezer – we offered to pay for it but Richard said to just take it. We made room for it in the laundry room and it is full of deer meat – yes, Ken shot us another deer this year. I am going to try my hand at some deer jerky after the first of the year.

My “official” musical performances are over – CIS concert was last Tuesday. Da Capo Strings (my adult string group) was the week before at Candlelight. Sarah and I are going caroling tonight with some folks in the Civic Orchestra. Speaking of, I did NOT play in their holiday concert last Saturday. Prairie Strings had a wedding at the exact same time so I opted to make money instead.

Oh, I have watched Rango and Rio and I enjoyed both quite a bit. I have Cars 2 waiting to be watched – probably tomorrow.

Well, I think I hear my student pull up. Sorry no photos. Maybe later…..

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