Amazing August

I would usually never put those two words together - August is typically hot and dry and busy (for some reason).  Not amazing at all.  This past week, however, we enjoyed gorgeous mild temperatures, it rained twice, and I had quite a bit of free time. It was a lovely week!

Monday morning, Steve had his annual eye exam in a part of town that is approximately half-way to the Southerlands so Emily met us and dropped off Lucy so she could spend the afternoon doing creative things with me.  Lucy worked on a second wolf watercolor (the one on the left)  to pair with the one she did back in May and she also water colored a cool dragon.  While she painted, I drilled holes into my dried bottle gourds. 

I had two music lessons on Tuesday morning and then it was time to get Quinn for his creative time with me. (somehow, I messed up and we didn't get together in June, which was his month). He and I both painted a bottle gourd. He also helped me stain half of the remaining gourds.  What am I going to do with all these gourds? I have no clue!!!

 

Wednesday was a day of errands. Thursday was grocery shopping. Friday was working on finances in the morning and helping Beckie get her car towed in the afternoon. 

Saturday morning, I picked more grapes (and there are STILL more on the vine!!!). After breakfast, Steve and I joined our neighbor, Ed, on a visit to his business - a lab called ELTEK - located in St. Charles where there are two apple trees loaded with fruit. We picked a bushel and Ed gave us a tour of his facility. It tests all kinds of electrical devices for safety. Very interesting. 

Steve helped me peel several pounds and I made a gluten-free apple pie and a big pot of applesauce. There are still MANY more apples left to process sitting down in the basement....

Throughout the week, Steve and I watched two episodes of Discovery, one documentary and three movies: The Secrets of the Bees (watched in snatches while I ironed, scanned photos, and while Steve and I peeled apples) , The Devil Wears Prada 2 ( Wednesday night), Remember the Titans (Thursday night during which time I finished all my scanning for my upcoming Lambson Life book that will cover 1975 to 1981) and The Sum of All Fears on Friday night.  

We had Ben and Jaxson Buttars over for tacos and burritos Saturday evening. They had come into town to work on the house that they are selling (and they now finally have a contract on it).  After they left, Steve and I took advantage of the unseasonably pleasant weather and had a little fire in our backyard firepit. 

Sunday evening, Steve and I drove to Columbia to hear Elise sing in the Memorial Baptist Choir concert. That choir has become quite good and I told Elise that if I still lived in Columbia, I would want to sing in it! We visited a bit with Elise afterwards....

On the way back to St. Louis, we got stuck behind a stalled car in a construction zone on the interstate.  We were all in a narrow lane surrounded by cement barricades on either side so there was no way to go around the car. It was far enough in front of us and it was also dark so we couldn't see what the problem was but I did see a trunk go up at one point so maybe a flat tire???  Finally, the problem was solved and we got moving again after waiting at a dead stop for over thirty minutes!!!  It was a good thing we used the restroom before we left Columbia!!!

The line in front of us.....

The line behind us....

I close with a photo of my beautiful sunflowers and of a wind spinner that Emily gave to me

Our 2026 Stay-cation

Our 2026 Stay-cation sort of started with Johnson's Shut-Ins the week before but it officially kicked off on Sunday, August 9th in Ballwin at Emily and Joe's place. Joe and Vicki were traveling through from Colorado to Massachusetts and we had a family dinner. Joe grilled chicken and veggie kabobs, Steve made his famous baked beans and I brought a GF cake for strawberry or peach shortcake. We brought Beckie with us and we had a nice visit. 

Vicki brought some old photographs with her and notice the similarities between Quinn and his dad when he was a teen!  

Beckie update: She had her PICC line removed on Monday and she was given permission to put weight on her foot - wearing a support boot. And, she returned to work at Little Fox this week!  HOORAY!

Monday morning, the Afghan women visited the St. Louis Aquarium and I went with them (since I had never attended before). It is a smallish venue and overpriced but I did see some cool things, including a random armadillo exhibit/demonstration???? The first photo is of "doctor fish" - the kind that are used in spas. I put my hand in the tank and took it out pretty quickly because it felt really weird. I "found" Dori 😁 and I really liked the sea horses and the jelly fish. 

Monday evening, Steve and I hopped onto the MetroLink and went to a Cardinal's game with free tickets given to Archway Refugee Connections volunteers. The seats were not the best - way at the end of right field - which put us in the sun for the first part of the game (temps were in the high 90's with heat index in the low 100's - blaaaaa). Happily, there was a breeze the whole evening which helped a tiny bit. Our seats were such that it was hard to see the jumbotron and also the angle of the ball when it was hit. And, to add salt to the wound, the Cardinals lost to the Phillies. (they won the next two games, though) 

Our staycation continued on Tuesday with going to the movie Spiderman Brand New Day. We brought Jair, a fellow to whom we give rides to church every week. He lives in a group home and doesn't drive and it would take over an hour and two busses to get to the movie theater. We all enjoyed the movie very much! A huge bucket of popcorn and a large drink was our lunch.

Wednesday, we said goodbye to Sally (we paid my friend Carol to come take care of her while we were gone) and headed west. We stopped at Steven and Tamara's for lunch with them and Elise. We got to see our grand-dog, Biscuit, and to see Elise's "new" car. She was given this 2008 Acura (120K miles!!!) by a family she knows through singing in the Memorial Baptist choir. They recently acquired a third car from her 80 year old mother who had stopped driving and they knew Elise was desperately needing a different car. (her 25 year old Toyota was "totaled" a few months ago in a fender bender that was not her fault. It was still drivable until the starter died two weeks ago). So, these wonderful people gave her their third car! What a blessing!!! And, that means Steve and I will keep the Element for ourselves for a while longer...

We continued on to Kansas City where we checked into a Hampton Inn right next to Worlds of Fun and we attended the Kansas City Temple that evening (St. Louis temple is now closed for some repairs/remodeling until December). 

Thursday morning, after our complimentary hot breakfast, we drove into the city (a fifteen minute drive) to visit the Nelson-Atkins Art Museum. We spent our time in the rooms featuring 19th century European art.  (the giant shuttlecock sculpture is one of four and they are iconic for the museum)

 

We decided to eat quintessential Kansas City BBQ for lunch and chose a long-time restaurant called Gates. Well, if they are a true representation of KC BBQ, then we were not impressed. The sauce was extremely salty and the meat was dried out. The coleslaw was "meh". So disappointing. We rested in our hotel room that afternoon and we watched The Devil Wears Prada to get Steve up to speed on the new movie which we didn't watch because we had a date with the Buttars family. They recently moved from our St. Louis ward to Kansas City and we wanted to see their new home. Plus, I taught Jaxson, the oldest, piano lessons for almost four years and all three boys in Primary. It was a nice visit.

(Steve, Jaxson, Marla, Ben, me in the back with Quentin and Troy in front)

Friday morning, we checked out of the hotel and headed back into the city to visit the World War One Museum. It was phenomenal! So beautifully curated, so informative. We could have spent twice the three and a half hours we spent there. But, we needed to grab lunch and head back to St. Louis. 

We got back home a little after 7:00. Sally was happy to see us. Carol reported that Sally finally warmed up to her on Thursday. 

Saturday was spent doing a lot of laundry and other chores usually done during the week. We drove to Ballwin that evening for me to give Larkin and Quinn piano lessons and to enjoy fireworks with Emily and Joe and kids at their Ballwin Days festivities. I always love a good fireworks show, even in a heatwave (which we were continuing to experience!)

Today, Emily and Joe drove Noah to to University of Missouri S&T in Rolla where he will begin his freshman year studying aerospace engineering. We are all very happy for him and he also seems quite excited...

And now our stay-cation is over and I am looking forward to returning to routine. I am NOT looking forward to continuing heat, however. But, I believe it is supposed to break this week.....

A Bountiful Week

August is the month of bounteous harvest and I took advantage of local peaches on sale to make peach jam Monday morning. And, our one little grapevine is on overdrive this year and I have already had two good pickings with at least two more to come. On Saturday, I made THREE batches of grape jelly and I am not making any more so I have offered grape harvesting to friends in the ward.  We have a LOT of jam/jelly now in our pantry! (Oh, beside the jars of peach jam are two bags of frozen peeled tomatoes from the garden. The tomato plants are also quite abundant this year. Not so much with the green beans, though)

We began our Tuesday by walking to a nearby school to vote with Fred. Then Steve and I helped drive Beckie to two doctor appointments - one at 11:30 and the other at 4:00. The first was in north St. Louis by the airport and the second was at Missouri Baptist Hospital complex so we just made a day of it and had lunch at The Corner Pub in Ellisville (next to Ballwin) that offers a wonderful gluten-free menu. I had a French-dip sandwich with onion rings. Delicious! Dessert was frozen custard at Culvers. Beckie's first appointment was to see her infectious disease doctor who gave her the good news that she would have her PICC line removed in a week and that she would be taking oral antibiotics until December 29th. Beckie thought it would go well into February. She won't get the bone graft surgery until after her antibiotics and she will be off her foot for eight weeks after that. January and February are "slow" months at Little Fox so she is happy that she will have those two months to recover.  Her second appointment was with her surgeon who told her "all systems go" for the removal of the pins on Friday. And, the surgery went very smoothly and tomorrow she will get to put weight on that foot while wearing a boot. Yay! She will be more mobile. Here is what her Franken-foot looked like with the bandages off and the pins still in..

Wednesday was a day-trip to Johnson's Shut-Ins with Emily and family. Steve opted to stay home since his back is so bad. All the walking and climbing to get to the water is very painful. I hitched a ride with the Southerlands and we had a glorious time.  We had pleasant temperatures both in the water and in the air, it wasn't crowded, and there were NO snakes!  Back in July, the Black River, where the Shut-Ins are located, had some serious flooding and it altered the river bottom quite a bit. It was much deeper (over my head in places) with less of the loose gravel that provided the more secure footing. I am glad I brought my walking stick to help me on the slippery darker rocks. (you can see in the first few photos the lighter, loose gravel next to the darker, larger rocks) The shoreline was also less abundant making it hard to find places to put towels and other stuff.  Below are photos of the day.  All but Noah came although you won't see any photos of Lucy. The rock cairns were built by Larkin.

We had a hefty rain storm Thursday morning but that didn't stop Steve and me from grocery shopping. We needed to purchase stuff to take to the Thursday night English Class end-of-session potluck with the Archway Refugee Connections that evening.  I brought cheese slices and crackers and a fruit salad, guaranteeing food that I would feel safe eating. The event was well attended.

 

Throughout the busy week, we managed to do some show/movie watching (which made me happy). We finished Masters of the Universe Monday evening. It redeemed itself (see last week's blog) for Steve but he does not plan to watch the hinted sequel. I probably will. On Friday, we watched Project Hail Mary (a second viewing for both of us) and we loved it just as much this go around.  We watched Star Trek Discovery on Tuesday evening and an episode of Bull on Thursday. And, on Saturday, I had time to watch a four-part mini-series called Seeking Persephone. It was a lovely movie with a delightfully romantic story but I had to view in on the Roku channel and the commercials were extremely obnoxious. I also watched a movie called A Marriage Made In Heaven on BYU -TV that was good and carried a very good message. 

I close with some lovely photos: a gorgeous sunrise, of a butterfly in my zinnia garden, my sunflowers and our house at sunset....