Saturday, June 21, 2014

A Bit of Respite

The end of this week was calmer, which I needed.  We went out to see my mother in law at Friendship Village yesterday.  My nephew and his wife and two daughters were passing through St. Louis on their way to Branson, and they stopped to see Grandma so we went since we hadn't seen them in a few years.  They have two darling girls, eleven and thirteen.  My mother in law was thrilled to see us all, but she was so confused.  She thought they were my grand daughters and asked about fifteen times if I had any other grandchildren.  Here is a picture of all of us:

I also have a few pictures of Abbey and Erin from the Botanical Garden this past week:






Garage sales were great this morning.  I've been looking on Craigslist for a hall tree/coat rack since last year when we finished our addition, to put in the little hall way to our bedroom.  I knew just what I wanted, a white one with a bead board back, hooks and a storage bench.  I haven't seen any on Craigslist for under $200, and since we already had a hall tree there I knew Wayne wouldn't want me spending a lot on another one.  He thinks I'm kind of crazy, anyway, going to thrift stores and garage sales.  Well, anyway, I went to my first garage sale this morning and found exactly what I have been wanting.  I was so excited when I saw it but there were a lot of people around so I figured it was probably already sold.  I saw the price on it, $30, and no sold sign.  So I asked the gal if she would take $25, and she said sure.  I couldn't fit it in my car, of course, so I came home and got Wayne and his Jeep, but we couldn't fit it in there, either.  So I texted my neighbor to see if we could borrow her truck, but she didn't respond so after lunch I called her and left a message, and I also called Rob to see if he could stop by after work with his SUV.  He did, and he and Wayne went and got it.  Although Wayne gets irritated when I keep buying stuff, I could tell he was pretty excited about it too.  He didn't want to admit it, but he kept asking me if I had heard back from Lisa about the truck.  I think she must have lost her cell phone because we never heard from her.  Anyway, here are a few pictures of it:


Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Back Again

I know it's been a while since I've written, but things have been kind of crazy around here.  Last week I went to a new cardiologist.  I liked him a lot, and he is right across the street from St. Mary's; my gynecologist is there as well as my oncologist, so it's pretty convenient.  And all of my information was already in the system so I didn't have to fill out all of that stuff.  He thought my heart sounded okay and might never need my aortic valve replaced.  It has been the same for four years now, a little more than half way blocked, but it hasn't changed at all.  He said they wouldn't even consider replacing it until it was under one centimeter opened, and mine is 1.4.  That was a relief.  When it was first diagnosed four years ago I was scared it was going to need to be replaced any day.

This past weekend we went to dinner with Bart and Pam and Jeff and Judith then back to Jeff's Friday evening.  On Saturday I went to garage sales then to a fancy aunt lunch for my sister Patty and niece Marisa.  It was at me sister, Lorie's house.  She sets a really pretty table and is good at entertaining.  I can tell she enjoys it.  Saturday evening we went to the Magic House; our investment company rented it out and told us to bring our kids/grand kids, family and friends with kids.  We brought Michael and Katie and Michael came back with us and spent the night.  Katie went home because she was going to camp on Sunday.  Rob brought Erin, and my sister Kay and her husband Bob brought their two grandsons, Luca and Noah.  It was fun, but Katie took the two little boys to another area and we couldn't find them for about an hour, which was kind of scary.

Sunday was Father's Day and Amy had us for dinner.  She had delicious steaks, hamburgers and hot dogs for the kids, pasta salad, green salad, fruit salad and corn on the cob.  I made a pound cake and brought fresh strawberries and whipped cream.  We were all well fed.  Then on Monday and Tuesday I had jury duty.  Both days I got picked for questioning, but did not make it to the juries, which was fine with me.  Nevertheless, I was there from 8 until almost 4 both days.  The most difficult part was getting in the court house.  It's kind of like getting into the airport; you have to go through security and take off shoes and all jewelry.  The first morning when I put my purse on the machine all of my lemon heads fell out into the rollers.  It was kind of embarrassing.  Then I forgot my watch and got up to the second floor when someone called me back.   The second day they found a little scissors in my purse--my embroidery scissors, so I had to take that outside and throw it away.  Then they found another one I didn't even know was in there and I had to throw that away as well.  Then when I went through for the third time they found a small pocket knife I didn't even know was in my purse.  I hope I don't have jury duty again for at least ten years.

Today I watched Abbey and Erin; I told Rob I would watch them one day a week this summer.  We went to the botanical garden this morning, and it was hot, hot, hot.  We went to the children's garden for about an hour, and then we went to the gift shop.  My daughters had given me a gift card for Mother's Day so I wanted to buy myself something.  I got a glass birdbath, and each of the girls got a stuffed animal type puppet.  They wanted to go the the lake and feed the Koi fish, but I told them we would go back next week and go there.  I didn't think about it being Wednesday when we went there, and Wednesday is free day.  We have a membership so we didn't need to get in for free but there were probably over a hundred people in line.  Luckily, someone asked if members had to wait in line and they let us go in another door and get tickets from a kiosk. 

As I said, it's been a busy week.  Now we are working on planning a bridal shower/dinner for my niece, Joanie, but I'll write about that later.

Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Home again, home again, jiggity jig

We had a really nice vacation this year. All of our kids were there except Patrick.  He is in the process of moving back to St. Louis, so he could not come.  Kate's boyfriend, Michael, also did not come.  He had some business obligations he could not miss.  Nevertheless, we had a good time.  The kids are big enough to go outside by themselves, except for the two babies, and they all get along pretty well.  We ate out a couple of times, once at Lulu's where we always go and Tacky Jack's where we also go every year.  Jo hn and Chellie got barbeque one night and Rob cooked another night. We started the week with Julia's first birthday, and we ended it with Kate's forty second birthday. 

Although it was a good vacation, it was really nice to get home.  I've spent the past couple of days weeding our flower beds--which could be a full time job.  Patrick is staying here while waiting for his piano and stuff to arrive from New York.  He got a really nice apartment in the central west end.  We're giving him a couch, kitchen table and chairs, lamps and coffee table.  Some relatives are giving him a desk, desk chair and love seat.  He still needs a bed and a car.  It's nice having him home.