humdrum week

It was a quiet week in Lambson-land. This entry might put you to sleep from boredom!

I now have five applied string students at Central Methodist University – one up from my last post. This will be an easy gig – all but one are beginners. The “advanced” student and I will play duets and I will be more of a coach as she delves into music that challenges her.

Steve and I watched the last two installments of the HBO mini-series “John Adams”. Wow, what a fantastic production. We also watched “The Forgotten” (which we own on DVD) – I jumped out of my skin at the SAME PLACE I did when I first saw the film. Losing one’s memory has its perks….

Oooo, we ate at Golden Corral on Monday night with Ruth Marshall and Richard and Roseanne (her son and daughter-in-law) to celebrate Ruth’s 90^th birthday. Good news about Ruth is that she has finally agreed to move to Candlelight Lodge. Her kids took a tour on Monday and Ruth took a tour later on in the week. I think that the fact that she can bring two of her cats clinched the deal. Roseanne will return in November to help her with the move.

I had a marathon Relief Society training meeting Thursday night – I was one of the torturers, ahem, I mean trainers. Two and a half hours is simply too long to try and teach someone. After the first hour, the trainees eyes were glazed over. I know I came home completely exhausted and I am sure the trainees went home in serious overload. Sigh.

Prairie Strings had a picture perfect wedding Saturday afternoon. We finished the selected prelude pieces exactly when the processional was ready to start and our music ended exactly when the last entrant arrived down the aisle – each time: for the grannies and moms, for the bridesmaids, for the bride. And, believe me, this rarely ever happens. And, having this wedding in a well air-conditioned building (Sacred Heart) that also happened to be gorgeous just added to the perfection.

Below are some photos from the wedding-in-Utah-trip....

Noah at one of the many rest-stops we made








Noah traveled really well in his car seat







Iron Man traveled well, too!








And, he actually slept in his car seat. Shock!




Noah liked Little America. We did, too.
(50 cent ice cream cones)














The Durkovich girls, Melissa and Cristall and Melissa's daughter Ari with me and Elise










Here is a non-professional photo of the wedding cake

I am sleeping again

Ahhh, yes, blissful sleep has resumed. In fact, this past week was one of the most laid back weeks I have had in a LONG time. Teacher meetings were not as intense as I anticipated. This year at CIS, I am teaching before school each day. It seems that the only way to have all the eligible string players together at the same time (without class conflicts) is to rehearse in the mornings. The advanced orchestra has mostly junior and senior high school players but there are also some really talented 4^th and 5^th graders in the group. I am starting a beginning string class two of the mornings and very happy to have administrative support for this since I tried a few years ago and it never got off the ground. But, since I am before school, it is not really a “class” – I do not give grades – and I fall under the category of a “club and organization”. Ya. SO, not really a part of the regular faculty this year so I don’t really feel the need to be at all the meetings. And, I’m not teaching enough to warrant an I-pad. But, at least I am still getting paid!

Another once-in-a-blue-moon situation last week was that many of my private students did not have a lesson for various reasons. As a result, I found myself with a great deal of discretionary time. Quite the contrast from the previous few weeks, for sure. And, I have to report that I really kind of just floated through the week not doing anything major. Just puttered. I finished two books: Specials and New Spring (a Wheel of Time prequel). I watched an oldie from Netflix called “What A Way To Go” starring Shirley McLaine, Dean Martin, Dick Van Dyke, Paul Newman, Robert Mitchum, Gene Kelly. A somewhat dark comedy that Steve and I have both seen before but many years ago. Funny. I also watched an old western called “The Westerner” starring Gary Cooper and Walter Brennan AND, my grandmother and grandfather as extras! It was filmed in Old Tucson in 1940 and my grandparents were part of the townspeople who first prayed and then danced at a celebration. You can see my grandpa with a couple of other fellows during the prayer and my grandma is being helped up from her knees after the prayer. Not many folks can say their grandparents were in the movies! I sewed up the seat cushions for the rocking chair for Lucy’s nursery, fixed a zipper for Melanie’s pants, and sewed a skirt from leftover fabric from Sarah’s dress but it is turned out to be too short! Just not quite enough leftover fabric. Pretty bummed about that. If Elise will tell me her waist size and the numbers match, then she will get it. Otherwise, Kirsti, do you want a cute skirt? Tell me your waist size……

Oh, it looks like I will be driving up to Fayette Friday mornings after CIS to teach four applied string lessons – a fancy word for private lessons - one beginning violin, one beginning cello, an intermediate violin and an intermediate cello. The budget will like that.

Steve and I made a quick trip to the St. Louis temple Friday after he got off work. It was a nice date. Steven and Tamara went up to Nauvoo to celebrate their 4^th wedding anniversary over the weekend. Julina started her student teaching last week. Tamara started teaching, too. Emily called on Friday so Noah could tell me he pooped in the potty. HOORAY! Sadly, he has not had a repeat performance as of yet but, it’s a start. Our heat pump stopped working yesterday. Our BRAND NEW heat pump and air handler that cost thousands of dollars! The repair guy came out this morning and got it back up and running but we will be pursuing this issue starting tomorrow, for sure. In the meantime, it was pretty warm sleeping last night.

That’s all, folks…..

WARNING - this is a LONG post

Mmmmmmm, I am crunching on left-over nuts from the wedding reception. You have no idea how those two canisters of mixed nuts called to me day after day as they sat in the spare bedroom in a basket waiting for the 12^th to roll around. And, while I am sad that there is soooooooo much leftover wedding cake and cookies, I am delighted with a full container now sitting in the freezer for me to savor these next few months. But, hey, having leftover cake meant we had something to bring to the ward social last evening. We have Sunday dessert nailed for a month. And, Steve won’t have to heat up the kitchen to bake cookies on Sunday evenings for at least two months! Ya, we have LOTS of leftovers. Weird thing is, I tried to return the unopened Hawaiian punch and Sprite back to Wal-Mart and, while they would have refunded the money, the drink would have been thrown away! Scandalous! So, I said, “never mind” and took the bottles back home with me and Steve suggested I have my next recital punch all taken care of. Done!

It has been so quiet yesterday and today now that everything is over and everyone has returned home. And, I can’t seem to get enough sleep. I napped for two hours this afternoon and would have continued had not Steve shaken me awake. As mentioned in the last blog, I have dealt with insomnia or just plain sleep deficit on and off for the past three weeks so I guess my body is just replenishing reserves.

So, the marriage of Kirsten to Ryan was wonderful. The beautiful ceremony in the Jordan River Temple was so perfect. Kirsti looked amazing. Ryan looked handsome. They are pretty smitten with each other, that’s for sure. It was great to meet and get to know Ryan’s parents. During the reception here in Missouri, Craig found some connection with almost every one of our friends who went through the receiving line. Of course, the world of LDS academia is pretty small, which helped. (Craig is a BYU professor of Finance)(OK, gotta put the nuts away NOW!) The reception in Utah at the BYU Skyroom was fabulous. They served sweet and savory crepes, I made the wedding cake (which was just intended for the cutting-of-the-cake ceremony since the bottom 14” layer was made of Styrofoam), and they had three kinds of flavored water as beverage – I particularly enjoyed the water with strawberries floating in it. The room was beautifully decorated with white tablecloths and turquoise runners and red gerbera daisy centerpieces. Ryan’s friend, a violin performance major at BYU, put together a string quartet that was absolutely perfect. And I would know.

The Missouri reception, just last Friday, also went beautifully. It was held at the stake center in the cultural hall which we lighted with many torchiere (those are lights on tall poles) lamps spread around the room. We also had the same table decoration set-up (gerberas are an incredible flower). The stage curtains were closed and we spread white Christmas lights on the stage apron and spread white tulle on top for a very nice effect. And, we utilized all the fake potted plants the stake center had. Newell Kitchen was the DJ and provided very nice easy-listening background music. We did the same wedding cake plan but I also baked three large sheet cakes from which we served guests. AND, Steve baked cookies…..and baked ……and baked…..nine different kinds! He baked all week long every night after whatever stake meeting he had to attend. Steven also baked 150 of his famous chocolate-peppermint cookies. We had tons of cookies!

It was so good to connect with all the kids in the last two weeks. Elise came as far as St. Louis and she helped us drive the rental van out to Utah August 1st. She also helped us with Noah who came along. Emily didn’t fly out with Lucy until Thursday, the 4^th which is also when Steven and Sarah and my sister Juli flew in. Julina arrived on Wednesday the 3^rd. Sadly, Beckie could not get off work so she stayed back in Columbia to take care of all the animals (except Tonks, Elise’s cat, who stayed with Melanie, much to Callie, the cat’s, ire). Noah was a great little traveler – as long as he had the portable DVD player or the I-touch. His world of make-believe is huge right now and most of the time, he was Iron Man. He made sure the kids (a.k.a. “super villians) at the playground at the Little America in Wyoming all knew this, too. He even slept in his car seat which was a shock to everyone. He only had a couple of melt-down moments (and they were literally just moments long) mostly at bedtime when he was already tired. That was when he wanted to sleep in St. Louis. Julina and Elise did not return to Columbia for the Missouri reception so I guess a full family photo will not happen in 2011. Speaking of photos, Emily was the official photographer and she deserves a huge round of applause for doing all the photos outside the temple, during the luncheon, and the reception while wearing a dress with sleeves that only allowed her to raise her arms half-way (that comes from me sewing for her long-distance and only having two fifteen-minute fittings!) and while having to listen to and/or worry about baby Lucy who was not happy about 50% of the time. Hats off to all the siblings who took turns with our sweet little Lucy. Kudos to all the help from all the siblings with decorations, serving, and clean-up at the Missouri reception. It was a massive event that consumed my life all summer, revved into overdrive these past two weeks, and, now that it is over, it is BACK TO SCHOOL – literally. Teacher meetings start Tuesday.

There were many blooper moments that I will just touch on…..the unbelievably loud freight train that roared by our Cheyenne motel window at 2:00 a.m. which thankfully did NOT waken Noah; the terrible traffic in Utah thanks to construction (STILL) and just plain too many people in Utah (we found that traveling surface streets was infinitely faster and less frustrating than I-15); Sarah who thought she was traveling on Thursday when it was really Wednesday so she completely bypassed her flight and we had to purchase another ticket for Thursday (but how could we NOT have Sarah?!?!?!); taking the flowers up to the temple, making sure they were in a car parked in the shade with windows open, and then forgetting them for the photo shoot after the ceremony; remembering to bring the flowers down to the Skyroom reception but then forgetting to hand out the bouquet as we dropped Emily off for another small photo shoot on the BYU campus (thanks, Elise, for walking the bouquet over to Kirsti on a campus she knew completely nothing about); forgetting the boutineers and corsages in the refrigerator back in American Fork but thankfully, Steven and Julina had not left yet (they were with sleeping Noah and not-sleeping Lucy) so they brought them BUT they couldn’t find BYU! Happily, the husband of one of my long-time friends -who had arrived early to the reception -was able to talk them in via cell phone; me determining that we needed cake boxes for the left-over cake so I cut my precious between-luncheon-and-reception nap short and tried to find the American Fork Hobby Lobby and never did so we got a late start to the reception (where I still had to assemble the wedding cake that ended up tilting slightly) and it turned out we didn’t need boxes because the Skyroom workers served up the 10” cake and had their own box for the top layer; Steve leaving his diabetic supplies pouch on the top of the van (because he was helping to load wedding cakes) and it falling off on the road and getting run over who knows how many times. Small crisis moments that thankfully blew over quickly.

In addition to all the good things I have already written about, it was so nice of Cal and Maureen to bring Steve’s mom to the reception. She is so frail these days and she couldn’t stay long but what time she was there was precious. It was a blessing to have Darla and Camrie fix Kirsti’s hair and make-up in Utah and for Tamra providing the same service in Columbia. Steven rented a car and that was a life-savor on many occasions. He drove Kirsti and me and, because the van was full, Julina up to the temple Friday morning and so Kirsti had two to help her dress for the ceremony. That was a treasured time. It was so great to see so many dear friends who live in Utah come through the receiving line – not only friends of mine and Steve’s but also our children got to connect with good friends. It was also wonderful to have Sarah home in Columbia for the week between the two receptions. Sadie was happy to have her here, too.

Sorry there are no photos. They will come later. And so, I will close before I go on to a third page…..

Eeeee, the wedding is getting closer!

Insomnia has commenced – literally. I could not sleep Friday night because I had so many things rattling around in my head.

Kirsti and Ryan drove out to Missouri on July 8^th for a week. They had several objectives while they were here – introduce Ryan to the rest of our family (check), have me work on the wedding dress to make it modest (check), travel to Nauvoo for Kirsti to receive her temple endowments (check). Here are some photos from the week.

here are two shots of Kirsti and Ryan up on MU campus where we had lunch with Steve

Nauvoo was an especially wonderful day and it was so great that Julina and Elise made the drive from Indiana to join us.

(l-r) Elise, Melanie, Ryan, me, Kirsti, Steve, Julina

below is Melanie, Julina and Steve outside the Red Brick Store

Kirsti and Ryan at our picnic lunch in the state park in Nauvoo

Steve cooking the hotdogs and hamburgers

Kryan (Kirsti and Ryan name meld. We also have Stamara and Jonomalucy) left on Saturday, the 16^th and on Sunday, Elise, whose goal this summer is to put lots more miles on her car, drove to Columbia so she could have a job interview with Oakland Jr. High Monday morning. She applied to the assistant librarian position and the interview went well but she found out later this past week that she was not hired. Sigh! But, having her drive back through St. Louis on Monday afternoon gave me the opportunity to hitch a ride and spend a couple of days with Emily and family. We all know how energetic Noah is but, in reality, it is Lucy is who keeps Emily from getting anything accomplished so my primary task this visit was to hold Lucy…..which I did while Emily cleaned and sorted and organized their dining room slash office. Lucy now coos and tries to talk through her huge smiles and, for the most part, she was not a problem. Occasionally, she still struggles with her tummy hurting and Tuesday afternoon post nap was one of those times. But, by then, Joe was home and he has the golden touch with her. It is quite amazing to watch. I had to get back to Columbia for a dentist appointment Wednesday morning so my visit was too short but Emily got her room cleaned and I had some great time with Noah Tuesday morning as we watered the garden and with Lucy as I held her for her Tuesday morning nap.

It was back to St. Louis, though, on Thursday for the temple. Steve took the day off and we went for an extended time doing initiatory and two endowment sessions. We had not thought to stop by Emily’s but I left my scriptures in the back seat Tuesday night when we transferred from her car to Beckie’s at the half-way point in Jonesburg. So, back to University City for a quick stop before dashing home in time for Steve to attend presidency meetings that night. That was a LONG day, to be sure.

We had air conditioning workmen at the house Friday. Considering the horrible heat wave we are enduring, it was not a great day to have the AC off (but, at least we were not Elise who was at YW girls camp all week in these temperatures. Poor kid!) No, our BRAND NEW heatpump is not on the fritz. But, in order for us to qualify for the low-interest loan (to pay for said heatpump) which is offered through the City of Columbia, our heat pump needs at least a 14 SEER rating (efficiency mumbo jumbo). It has a 15 BUT, our air handler (which in the inside unit that blows the air around and is our back-up heater when temperatures get too cold for the heat pump to work effectively) is so old, that it pulls down that SEER rating. SO, we now have a new (and expensive) air handler to boost the SEER to the required number. And I thought I was through with repairmen for the summer…………

I have begun sewing Sarah’s dress for the wedding. My skirt is cut out. Emily’s dress will get tackled on Tuesday (I hope). While sewing, I have been watching movies (of course) and I have seen two Doris Day/ Rock Hudson / Tony Curtis movies recently. Those three must have signed a contract to make a string of films together with cookie-cutter plots. Doris plays the naive Midwestern girl in the city – Rock plays the playboy set out to trick Doris into thinking he is not a cad- Tony plays the comic-relief friend of Rock. Rock almost gets Doris into bed when she finds out his true colors and storms off but Rock, by this time, has actually fallen in love with Doris (his playboy days are through!) and he woos her back. Pillow Talk and Lover Come Back with exactly the same plot-line. It passes the time while sewing but I think I have had my fill of this movie candy for a long while.

Don’t look for another blog post until after we get back from Utah. That is, of course, unless insomnia returns.....

Do something days

Since summer orchestra ended, I have been filling my days with numerous “little” projects. Too many to list, I think. However, I am delighted to report that our stairs finally have new carpet. The roll you saw in an earlier photo turned out to be the wrong type of carpet for our stairs. We have a gap between the stairs and the wall and too thin a carpet would eventually begin to sag into that gap. So, we had to load the roll back into our truck and haul it back to Kingdom City where I exchanged it for a thicker, quasi-shag type carpet.

Turns out, I really like this stuff much better – as you can see, it is multi-colored in browns to hide all kinds of muddy paw prints and, come to find out, pet hair. When I vacuumed today, I could have woven a sweater with all the pet hair I pulled up. Yuck! The main culprit in the hair loss is Trissy and I would like to shave it all off for the summer!

Here is a photo of the sports room.

Notice the theme-related curtains I finally sewed? The baseball team border up by the ceiling is also new. We bought Cardinals and Yankees wallpaper borders several years ago and just never put them up. Then, after my ordeal with peeling off kitchen wallpaper, I vowed never to let my walls be papered again. But, when we visited Julina, I remembered that she put up her border with staples. Eureka! If one looks closely, it is noticeable that the paper is not completely flush with the wall but you have to look REALLY close. SO, I stapled Cardinals and Yankees on the sports room walls. (all you can see are the redbirds. Yankees are on the opposite wall)

I have been spending lots of time at Finale doing music arrangements for Prairie Strings. We had a rash of special requests this summer – Michael Buble’s Everything, Beatles Michelle, the Imperial March (Yes, that is Darth Vadar’s march. The son of the bride will march down the aisle to that. I have no idea if he will wear the mask), Coldplay’s Life in Technicolor, and finally, the Mario Brothers music to take you up to the next level (that is when the bride and groom kiss). Ya, pretty crazy.

Emily, Joe, Noah, and Lucy visited us two weekends ago. Emily’s high school friend was having a bridal shower here in town. That is what gave her the courage to venture out of her security zone with a new baby. The visit went just fine but I discovered that having a VERY active 3 ½ year old and a somewhat fussy 2 month old did not mix well with our NINE pets, many of whom were extra needy during that time (Max and Sadie, of course, but Trissy was surprisingly always under foot). We celebrated Emily’s birthday while they were here.

Finally, Steve and I went to Indiana for the 4^th of July weekend. We went as far as St. Louis on Friday, the 1^st, where we ate dinner at the Hokensons. Who??? Paul is the retired CES director for St. Louis and his wife, Julina Smith Hokenson, is obviously a distant relative. They are both temple workers and the last time we went to the temple, Paul said we needed to get together to compare genealogy notes so that is what we did. Paul is an avid genealogist and he was extremely helpful for Steve with the Lambson line. Turns out we are also related to them by the Montague line! After sleeping at Emily’s, we left Saturday morning for Lafayette. Julina’s ward had a potluck picnic that afternoon that we attended (too bad it was sooooo hot and humid).

Here are gluten-free cupcakes we decorated for the potluck

While there, we met a senior missionary couple that gave us the phone number of a young sister missionary in the area also named Lambson (family history weekend!). Turns out his brother and wife were senior missionaries in Novosibirsk while Steven was serving (he remembers them) AND, they have a nephew who lives here in Columbia and is in the Highlands ward. In addition, we ate at a table with an older lady who was visiting her son and family and who lives in Billings, Montana and has Mark Jarvis (he used to live in Columbia) as her home teacher. WOW – super small world.

Julina and Steve at the picnic

After the picnic, we drove to Lebanon, Indiana (half-way to Indianapolis) to link up with Elise at a McDonalds. She shared souvenirs from her trip back east and brought gifts from Sarah to assorted family members here in the Midwest. It was a fun, if brief, visit.

On Sunday, we attended church and pretty much relaxed the rest of the day. Lafayette allows fireworks in the city limits for a few days leading up to the 4^th so that night was ablaze with home-grown firework displays. The house across from the little lake in Julina’s apartment complex had an impressive show – they must have spent $500.00 or more! So, we got to view fireworks from them and from all around the neighborhood in air-conditioned comfort. Monday morning we continued what we started Sunday evening – helping Juli sort and organize several boxes of old papers, photos, letters, etc. that had been accumulating for the past ten-plus years. We were able to get quite a bit done although there are still a few things for Juli to do on her own. We rewarded ourselves with frozen custard and a visit to the city park and zoo.

Julina and I at the city park

butterfly at the insect exhibit at the zoo

eagles at the zoo

Steve and I left around 3:30 Indiana time and drove through beautiful rural Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri past fields of corn and soybeans and got home a little after 9:00 Missouri time. It was a good visit. As I type this, Kirsti and Ryan are driving to Missouri for a week-long visit. Highlights in the next blog……