August news

        I must say that, up to now, school has been pretty time-consuming….planning meetings, setting up classrooms, preparing for classes, figuring out my schedule.  I THINK I can say that things are now pretty well set up and it will just be moving forward.  I HOPE!

         I have not begun my CIS orchestras – that starts tomorrow – but I have been contacting students and setting up size-me-up sessions all last week.  My violin class at Lange is comprised of twelve students – 10 girls, 2 boys – who range in playing ability from “pretty good” to “how did they make it through all last year?”  One girl literally received an F and yet, she is back and in my class.  Oh boy!  My Rock Bridge High School orchestra is great – 12 violins, 6 cellos, 2 basses, aaaaaaaaaand 1 viola – and he is not very strong, at that.  But, we will work around that by asking assorted violins to fill in on the viola part.  I teach six students at Central Methodist University – 3 cellos and 3 violins.  All are at the beginning level and last week was my first time to see them.  It was not as tiring as I thought it would be and I think I will come to look forward to my Thursday afternoons in Fayette. 

Since I do so much driving, I decided last spring to check out books on CD to help pass the time in the car.  I am currently listening to Huckleberry Finn and I am really enjoying it…. laughing out loud many times.   My pathetic high school English education left me without exposure to many of the great authors so I hope to make up for that this year by listening to them on CD. 

        Ruth Marshall turned 91 on Wednesday and her son, Richard, and his wife Roseanne flew out from New York to be with her.  I was invited to join them and Ruth’s sister, Rosie and her family at Golden Corral Wednesday evening.  It was a nice evening.

 Below is a photo of Siri, Julia, and Margaret - the ladies in the Prairie String Quartet - at a little luncheon we had last Saturday.  The picture was taken on Siri's deck of her beautiful new home in west Columbia.  Our quartet has many weddings booked for the fall and we needed to have a planning meeting.  We played for two weddings just yesterday!

Last Friday evening, we traveled to St. Louis to attend the temple and we stayed over at Emily and Joe's.  Here are some cute pictures of Lucy and Noah that I took Saturday morning before we returned to Columbia.  (kind of blurry, Emily, I know)

        We are still suffering from no rain.  We are supposed to get some today but I will believe it when it happens.  Sarah has moved out and into a cute one-bedroom apartment above the garage at Charles and Rebecca Lamb’s house (members of our church).  She is literally in the middle of the woods in the middle of Columbia.  Trissy has moved with Sarah on a trial basis.  We are not sure how it will work since the house on Parker has been the only home she has ever known.  And, Steve is probably her true “person” but we are not sure about that.  Steve DID discover her newest escape route yesterday.  I thought she was climbing over the fence but, no, she is still crawling under the fence by the garden.  There is a spot where she doesn't have to dig and that is how she gets out so quickly (less than 5 minutes!) She won’t do it if we are out in the yard with her (which is pretty much all the time because she is so persistent in escaping) but, Steve went back inside and peeked out and caught her “red pawed” so to speak.   

        Beckie’s progression towards leaving for Hawaii continues.  She took a truckload of stuff to St. Louis to sell in her friend Kathy’s yard sale last weekend and made $400.00.  She will empty out her storage unit this week (it is mostly empty already) and will start living out of suitcases the first of September.  She has been working LOTS of overtime lately at MBS.  That and the hoops she has to jump through to bring Max to Hawaii have been her biggest stressers. 

        So, that brings you up to date with us here in Columbia….

It's blogging time - finally

Where did July go???  Where did the summer go??!!??  School begins in the next two weeks and there you are, “summer” is over but I bet the heat won’t be over.  This oppressive heat and drought is one of the worst on record – certainly the worst we have ever experienced.  All I do is water – trying to save the garden and all the fruit bearing bushes and trees that we have planted. 

That is what July was – watering…..and having a Lambson family reunion.  Kirsti and Ryan flew out from Utah.  Elise flew in from New York.  And Julina drove in from Indiana.  The reunion started

 with a campout at Johnson's Shut-Ins State Park - for old time sake.

 

 We haven’t camped there in seven years – not since the Taum Sauk dam burst and flooded the state park.  Heck, we really haven’t camped at all in those seven years.  So, add oppressive heat, a campground that is totally different and farther away from the Shut-Ins, and old, decaying (or absent) camp equipment and you have a recipe for a less-than-perfect camping trip.   

 

Sleeping was hot.  Eating was drawn-out because there was an open-fire ban (due to the drought) and we could only use charcoal.  

 

 

  our poor bacon trying to cook over charcoal.....

 After we learned to light little piles of charcoal every thirty minutes, cooking got easier but the first couple of meals were kind of a disaster as our charcoal briquette heat faded too quickly to cook effectively.  

 

  pie irons did OK - but look how funny the egg cooked?  Looks like a little volcano!

  of course, Noah had fun, no matter what!

and it was fun to have Papa Joe along (he was stateside for a meeting earlier in the week)

  

Only the water (which was low, but still present) saved the day.  Swimming was wonderful!

 

  Elise and Papa Joe 

Steve found one of his hole-in-a rocks

Lucy was NOT happy that she couldn't go down the Shut-Ins with mom, dad and Noah

 

Camping went from Thursday to Saturday and then we congregated in Columbia for 24 hours – enough time to have a family portrait,

 

   a family council, and  two family dinners – the first one being cooked by those who do not like to camp and stayed home (Beckie, Tamara, Julina, and Melanie) – and the second one to celebrate Elise’s birthday.   

 

 We got to attend the new Kansas City Temple twice – once before picking up Elise at the airport and again before her flight back home.  That was great.  

 

 Ryan, Kirsti, Steve, and Elise at the Kansas City Temple.

  Overall, it was a family gathering that exceeded my hopes and expectations.  So grateful to have everyone home one last time before Beckie leaves in September.

July was also grandkids.  Emily flew to Utah last week to be the photographer for Kamrie’s wedding (Jeff’s oldest daughter) so Steve and I took care of Noah and Lucy for four days.  It was great – both adapted really well to being away from their parents.  I was so busy that I didn’t take many photos except these when Noah and Lucy were on our bed.   

 

 It was Lucy’s FAVORITE thing to do – bounce on grandma and grandpa’s bed.  We explored the little-kid’s swim at Oakland Park and we returned to Stephen’s Lake Park with the spray ground and sandy beach.  

 

And, now it is time for school.  I am still teaching zero-hour orchestra Monday through Fridays at CIS.  I have six applied string students (basically private lessons) at CMU that I will drive up to Fayette to teach hopefully just once a week but I might have to split the lessons between two days  BECAUSE, I was asked late last week if I would consider teaching part-time with Columbia Public Schools again!  That was a surprise.  And, after a weekend of considering, I accepted the job of teaching a morning 7^th grade viola/cello class every day for 45 minutes at Lange Middle School and driving down to Rockbridge High School every other day to direct their orchestra for 90 minutes right around noontime.  I really believe this to be only a year-long assignment as next fall, the third high school will open and CPS will be able to hire another full-time string teacher (which I WON’T be).  SO, for this year, I will be doing LOTS of string teaching on LOTS of different levels.   OH, and remember my adult string group – the Da Capo Strings?  I have been thinking it was time to integrate them into the RTO (Really Terrible Orchestra – for people who want to play in an orchestra but are not skilled enough for CCO).  Only, the director of the RTO was ready to fold the group because she didn’t want to handle it alone any longer.   So, we have put our resources together and we will co-conduct/direct the RTO.  This is actually a lighter load for me as Da Capo Strings met weekly and this will be twice a month. But, considering how crazy my summer was, maybe going back to school will be a vacation???

TRISSY@#$%&!!!!

It has been noted previously on this blog that Trissy is a digger.  She just won't stop.  And one of her favorite places to dig is under the garage.  There were the beginnings of some under-the-garage caverns when we moved into the house (maybe that is why the house is settling???) and I took some fine wire mesh and blocked up the front yard access to keep racoons or possums from taking up residence.  But, I didn't think much about the backyard access until one time, several years ago, Sarah and Kirsti came to me in tears because Trissy had wormed her way into the hole and they were worried that she might get stuck under there.  That is when I brought the wire mesh out and sealed that hole up - for good, I thought.  Nope.  Persistent old Trissy has managed to pull back the wire and dig under it and re-enter her hidey hole a several times over the years.  So, lately, I had been thinking to put a big pile of rocks in front of the mesh.  So many rocks that her ADHD brain would give up after moving the first couple of rocks and she would move on to barking at a squirrel or something.  And, so, yesterday morning, Steve, Sarah, and I hiked down to the Bear Creek and hauled back several large rocks.  As soon as we returned, I donned my work pants and gloves and closed up the hole.  Fast forward to yesterday afternoon when I decided to clean the refrigerator.  I HATE cleaning the shelves because they are too big for the kitchen sink - it is really an awkward undertaking. In the past, I have tried cleaning them in the bathtub and that was sort-of OK but this time, I got it into my head to clean them on the back deck with the hose and a bucket of suds.  Good thing I did (maybe it was a prompting?) because just as I was climbing up the deck stairs after turning on the hose, I heard a soft whimper and OH MY GOSH, I HAD SEALED TRISSY UP IN THE HOLE UNDER THE GARAGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  As  Beckie put it, I "Edgar Allen Poe'd her".  Why didn't she come greet me as I was working that morning?  What if I had not gone out in the yard at all that day?  I am just dumbfounded over that dog. 

Today, I am getting ready to take the computer to the repair shop because I inadvertently downloaded a virus while reading e-mail this morning and I think " I haven't seen Sadie in awhile".  So, I go out on the deck and there she is looking very anxiously out the back gate at something.  It was TRISSY coming back from yet another digging-out-of-the-yard adventure - soaking wet (taking a dip in the Bear Creek or Oakland pond, no doubt).  Sigh.......

PLEASE, someone, take this dog off my hands!

The BEST road trip ever!

I just got back from a terrific road trip with Julina.  After traveling to Indiana and California and Utah already, it would seem ANOTHER road trip so soon after would be anything but terrific.  However, breaking up the driving to Utah into two days both ways really made all the difference.  It allowed us to take more breaks and side-trips.  And, we didn’t arrive at our destination completely exhausted from a 22-hour haul. 

We left on Wednesday, the 27^th and took the I-70 route.  We had learned of an interesting rock formation just south of Oakley, KS and, despite the 115 (?!?!?) degree temperatures, we took the 20-mile detour to check out Monument Rocks. 

As you can see, they are in the middle of nowhere off a gravel road.  No services.  No explanatory signs.  And it was SOOOOO hot and windy so we didn’t linger long.  They were pretty neat, though.

We stayed the night with my niece, Kendra, in the Denver area.  Loved her four children and their two-half-grown kittens.  We left early Thursday morning with the plan to eat breakfast at the first rest-stop we found.  It happened to be at a “welcome center” at Red Rocks (which I learned later is a well-known concert venue in the Denver area).  

As we pulled into the parking lot, look who was going to be performing that night!  

Security personnel prevented us from lingering so, as we munched on our travel breakfast in the car, 

we listened to Alan Jackson tunes Julina had on her i-pod.

I had forgotten how beautiful I-70 is through the Rockies!  We stopped at a rest-stop that actually had a raft-launch/beach on the Colorado River that was running parallel to the interstate.  Here is Julina checking it out.

Nearby was a small mountain stream that fed into the river and it was so inviting, 

I just had to get my feet wet.

The beauty became more stark and barren the farther west we traveled and, by the time we crossed the line into Utah, it was a whole lot of nothing all the way to the connect with I-15.  We chose to take that route – rather than cut up north at Green River through Price – because we wanted to visit Cove Fort, a church historic site from pioneer days.  Brigham Young sent Ira Hinckley (Gordon’s grandfather) to built the outpost for the purpose of hosting  stage coaches and maintaining a telegraph.  

Brigham Young stayed there whenever he traveled to St. George.

This is Julina and me in the center of Cove Fort.  

From  Cove Fort, it was just a few hours from Provo and our destination.  

We drove past one of the many fires plaguing that state.  

Check out the poor visibility due to the smoke.

It was nice to finally arrive at Ryan and Kirsti’s place.  

Here they are in front of their quintessential  Provo married-student apartment.  

Julina and I slept on our own air mattress in their second bedroom and were very comfortable. 

Friday was a trip to Deseret Industries to look for lady-blazers for me to wear on Sundays.  Found four!  We had lunch at Malawi’s – the pizza place where Kirsti works – and devoured delicious GLUTEN-FREE pizzas!  They even had GF dessert pizzas!  We chose berries and cream with fresh strawberries and raspberries.  YUM!  Then, in the afternoon, it was Jamilyn’s wedding in the Oquirrh Mountain temple.

Jamilyn, Brad, and Kason

 Here are Julina, Kirsti, and Ryan. 

The reception was in the backyard of the beautiful home where Jami had an apartment in the basement.  There was somewhat of a breeze but the temperatures were perfect.  It was a lovely event.

Here are Jesse and Jeremy Davies - what handsome men my nephews are!  

Jesse looks like a cop, doesn't he?  (he actually is)

 

The Julis

Kirsti had to work on Saturday and Ryan had chores but the Julis and I drove down to attend the Manti Temple.  

It is a magnificent building crafted by those 1800’s pioneers!  We enjoyed a delicious lunch in the temple cafeteria and then drove back up to Provo – passing by evidence of the Utah fires:  smoke plumes on the east and charred hills on the west.  After supper, we three enjoyed watching Mirror Mirror at the two-dollar theater in Provo and then said farewell to my sister.  She was staying at Jami’s place to care for Kason while Jami and Brad were on their honeymoon. 

Sunday, we attended meetings with Kirsti and Ryan in their mega-meetinghouse which was built specifically for the demands of the hundreds of student-wards at BYU.  It had two full-size chapels and two Relief Society rooms and tons of classrooms on three levels.   Ryan’s church calling is to coordinate the cleaning.  Yikes – that is a huge job.  Kirsti is the chorister and she also plays the piano for Relief Society most of the time.  We were invited to dinner with Ryan’s family and had a delicious meal and a great visit before heading up to stay the night at Dave and Dale’s in Holliday.  The skies of Utah Valley were hazy with fire smoke and it makes the coloring in the Merrill photo a bit sepia, don't you think?

We took an early start Monday morning to begin our drive back east.  That day’s side trip was to Martin’s Cove, about 45 miles north of Rawlins, WY.  This was where the handcart pioneers meet with disastrous winter weather and many lost their lives. 

We really did NOT push this handcart - it was too hot - but we look the part, don't we?

This is a shot of Martin's Cove in the distance with the Sweetwater River in the foreground.

We spent the night at a lovely bed and breakfast in Cheyenne, WY.  Peggy and Harold were our hosts and their home was full of beautiful antiques and Native American artifacts.  The bed was wonderful and the breakfast Tuesday morning was gourmet AND gluten-free, thanks to the efforts of Harold.

Tuesday we traveled across Nebraska and made a stop at yet another church history site – Winter Quarters in Omaha.  We took a short tour of the visitor’s center and the pioneer cemetery and then made the 6:00 temple session.  

Juli and I in front of the visitor's center.

This is a shot of the pioneer cemetery.  The temple is just to the south.

another shot of the Winter Quarter's temple

Omaha is about five hours from Columbia so we still had a bit of a drive to get home.  But, thanks to Juli’s i-pod and LOTS of podcasts, we were able to stave off sleepiness and pull into Columbia at 1:40 am on the 4th of July.  We slept in that day and then poor Julina had to continue another seven hours on to Lafayette.  We didn't even go to fireworks that night - too HOT here - but we watched Return of the King instead.

Whew!  I am done.

  

  

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June 2012

Can it already be June 24^th?  It just seems like yesterday I was attending Art in the Park with Beckie, Max, and Sadie on June 2nd.  

 

 Bringing the doggies really garnered many "oohs" and "how cutes".  Notice Max in the purse I am holding in my left hand?  

But, time sure flies when you spend half the month traveling!  The week after our trip to Indiana, I got a call from my sister telling me that my 91-year-old brother-in-law, Eber Saniger, had passed away after a lengthy downhill spiral in health.  I regret to this day that I did not act quickly enough to buy “reasonably” priced plane tickets to attend my brother-in-law, Bob Bowden’s funeral a couple of years ago so I quickly went to my computer and I actually found some decent tickets that flew me into Ontario, CA (north and east of LA) where I would just have to rent a car and drive two more hours to Mojave where Eber and Judy lived.  I had hoped to fly into Phoenix and drive over to California with sisters Juli and Jerri but, oddly enough, the ticket prices were higher.  And, this way, I had more time at home to shuffle lessons and other commitments into the days I had left in the week.  I left Monday evening, June 4^th as the funeral was on the 5^th.  I am SO glad I made the trip. Here I am with all my siblings.  Jerri, Judy, Jim, Juli.

 

 I saw scads of other relatives – some I hadn’t visited with in over ten years.  And, of all Judy’s many posterity, there were only two grandsons and one great-grandson unable to attend.   

 This is taken at Judy's place.  Eber was quite the "collector" and, as I strolled around the property, I saw many cool antiques.  Antique Roadshow would have a heyday there!

I returned to Kansas City late Wednesday night, the 6^th,  and it was in the wee hours of Thursday that I finally pulled into our driveway.   Later that day, Emily and Noah and Lucy came into town after doing some photo business in Fulton.  They stayed overnight and Friday morning, we all visited Stephen’s Lake Park where there is a beach and a “sprayground”.  LOTS of fun that morning.  

 

 

 

 

Emily and Lucy left for St. Louis that afternoon and Noah stayed to spend a week at grandma and grandpa’s house.  We had lots of plans but it was just three days later, Monday morning, that we got a call from Steve’s sister, Michelle, informing us that his mother, Iola, had died peacefully in her sleep sometime early that morning.  After her stroke a year and a half ago, she just seemed to slowly fade – never regaining her strength to walk, losing her appetite, no energy – and the doctor warned the family that she would not live long.  So, this was not a surprise.  Now it was deciding who and how to go.  We could have just sent Steve out by plane but this was grandma so we ultimately decided to rent a van and drive with Sarah, Beckie, Emily, Julina, Steve, and me.  And so, Wednesday afternoon, on the 13^th, I packed up Noah and drove him back to St. Louis, selected a van at Alamo rentals, picked up Julina (who had driven in from Indiana) and Emily and headed back to Columbia to collect Steve, Sarah, Beckie, and the little dogs, Sadie and Max.  Melanie thankfully was willing to watch all the other animals at our house.  This included Bacon, Steven and Tamara’s dog, because they were on a 10-day trip in Costa Rica!  Elise was with them.  We pulled out of Columbia at 8:30 pm Wednesday night and got to our hotel in American Fork at 4:30 Thursday afternoon.  LONG trip but, thankfully, with everyone helping with driving, it was do-able.  The funeral was Friday morning and we spent the day with tons of Lambson family.  Only three grandchildren could not be there – Steven, Elise, and Jason Killian.  Again, we saw family we had not seen in twenty years.  AND, it was great to spend time with Kirsti and Ryan.   

 

 Sarah, Beckie, Ryan, Kirsti

That evening, we went over to Iola’s now empty house in American Fork (it is up for sale) and picked up some items that Steve had set aside to bring back to Missouri during his visit in March (SOOOO glad he had a chance to see his mother one last time).  Most if the artifacts are family history related but we managed to fit a small cedar chest (filled to the top, of course) in the back of the van as well as a tub of books and journals – oh, and some great gardening tools.  I now have a very fine antique pruner.  Left behind are two remaining tubs of family history that Julina and I will collect this coming week when we drive BACK to Utah for a planned trip to attend Jamilyn’s wedding.  On Saturday, we had lunch at Kirsti’s new place of employment called Malawi’s, a pizza restaurant that actually serves gluten-free options, before getting back in the van for the drive back to Missouri.   

 

here we are just before heading home....

 

We left 1:00 in the afternoon and arrived in Columbia at 10:00 in the morning on Sunday.  Julina, Emily, and Beckie continued on to St. Louis and poor Juli continued the additional five hours to Lafayette.   That is a LOT of driving in a short amount of time.  

Last week, aside from having residual tiredness, has finally been normal.  I joined the stake R.S. presidency in taking dinner to girls camp Monday night where the leaders and youth leaders were preparing for the rest of the girls to come Tuesday.  I taught all my usual cello/piano/violin lessons.  I watched Iron Lady which was quite good.  I attended my water aerobics class Wednesday evening.  Steve and I drove to attend the temple Friday/Saturday.  Emily and family came to Columbia last night after a wedding that Emily photographed (remember that photo business in Fulton a week or so ago?) and now they are gone after attending church with us this morning.  I prepare to leave for Utah on Wednesday.  And then June is gone!