Finally! Rain!!

 It rained on Thursday evening while we were driving back home from Elko. We missed it, but there were puddles around and 1 tenth of an inch in our rain gauge.

But on Friday evening, we had RAIN. THUNDEROUS rain. POURING rain. Flooding kind of rain, to the tune of one inch in an hour in Cedar City. Yikes.

So much water! Wind! Lightening! Thunder! I'm

I was ushering at Shakespeare. They did have the closing night of Antony and Cleopatra. It stopped enough to begin 50 minutes late. They also had to keep "holding" for lightening . It was sort of sprinkling during the play. Most of the patrons stayed, surprisingly. They had a few delays in order to squeegee and towel dry the stage for the safety of the actors (so they don't slip). 

It was SO COLD! It was my turn to stay late and one of my friends /neighbor/ fellow ushers who was NOT staying late took off an over shirt and loaned it to me. Nice thick warm cotton. She lent her sweater to Paula who was also unprepared and freezing. I did try calling Mike a few times to bring us warm jackets, but he never answers his phone. He was watching sports on TV in the basement and never heard his phone. Ugh. He also forgot that he'd signed up to go and help clean the temple that evening. Oops. I forgot about reminding him. My Bad. Apparently I am the keeper of the calendar.

Sun flowers within sunflowers

 This is a small "Giant Sunflower" in my garden. It's only about 4 or 5 inches in diameter. It's trying really hard to make sunflower seeds. 

 

This is auch larger sunflower. It's head is easily over 1 foot in diameter. Each of the seeds in the head will be made with one of those teeny tiny flowers . 

Here is a zoomed in view of seed flowers.

I just think it's really cool.

September-- Library and Elko Temple

 I don't know why we always forget to take the picture when we gather as retired Library ladies! I guess we took a photo once. But on Wednesday, September 3rd, we did not take a picture. There were just five of us. I guess Linda Ahlstrom forgot, Paula Mitchell was having a funeral for her mother. Susan Christopher had said she was unable to come, along with Lorraine Warren. It was just Sheri Butler, Loralyn Felix, Diana Graff, and Janet Seegmiller. And me! I organized it this time. It was nice to get together. Sheri had had a recent near-death experience with a staph  infection that was really awful. It went septic? sepsis? I'm never sure what that word is, but she did almost die. She was in the hospital for 17 days in Portland, OR! It was a pretty awful adventure for her, and paralleled something that Diana had gone through 15 years ago or so. She was 16 days in the hospital, too! And it was a bacteria eating and staph infection. Terrible things! Sheri is still very tired and can only do one "thing" per day, so I planned the lunch to coordinate with her meds and energy availability. 

Backing up a little, August 30 was Mike's 55th HS reunion. We attended that Saturday afternoon. Iron Springs Resort West of town. It was fun. 

See the chubby hands in the corner of photo? That's me. Ha.

Mike had such a fun time visit with folks. It's his 'thing', you know. I met a new friend. Then on Monday night we had dinner with Marilyn and Ryan (?) can't recall last name. But we have an invite to stay with them in San Diego when that Temple Open House is going on.😉 Yes, I do love attending a Temple Open House.

 Monday afternoon we walked around the Iron County Fair exhibits and the largest collection of food trucks I've ever seen in one spot before! And we were good little healthy eaters and had lunch at home BEFORE going over to Parowan!

The Larson's came over on Tuesday evening to play games and have snacks with us. We always have a fun time with them. I made a really yummy peach dessert. It's called no-bake peach delight? I'm not really sure, but I do know it's yummy! We didn't stay up too terribly late playing games as Wednesday morning is our early Temple day. 

All day Tuesday I was really sniffy and drippy and thought maybe I was coming down with a cold! That kind of worried me since we have a trip coming up. But I took a lot of cold medication and that took care of symptoms. I was tired. But that's all. Wednesday morning when we got up to go to the temple I just took lots more medication and I was tired at work, but not sniffy and drippy and sneezy ( OR Happy, Dopey, Grumpy or Doc!). We were supposed to attend an endowment session, but I decided to cancel that appointment and just to do our initiatory appointment, which is shorter. And I was so tired. I needed a nap! After a good nap ( in spite of TWO  doorbell interruptions!) I was able the get to my Library Lady Luncheon. Then Mike and I packed,  loaded up the truck and headed to Elko Wednesday afternoon. 

Again, I was SOOOooo tired, so I just slept, slept, slept. And that's what I need to get rid of colds! I suck on zinc lozenges and I rest, and I drink lots of fluids, and if it is a cold that's starting, I can usually kick it right then! I always wonder if it's just allergies and not really a cold, but colds and  allergies do feel different. Just a bit. There are many similarities, true. And either case, I am well. And that is good. My hip is still healing,  however. It still hurts to walk up stairs. Not as bad as three weeks ago, however.

Elko was great. We had nice visits with Gail, Seth and Jonathan. We slept well that night at their house. Thursday Jonathan had on line classes to attend at his Ensign Peak Academy, so we waited for him to do that and then we got ready to go to the Open House. Seth even joined us from his work. The open house was lovely. It's a tiny temple! A sealing room that holds 48 or so can be reconfigured to become an instruction or endowment room! I've not seen that before. Baptism font oxen were relief cravings on a flat panel rather than whole or partial oxen statues. Interesting. Definitely space-savers! 

Gotcha!

The flowers were exceptionally beautiful on the grounds.

Mike and I said our goodbyes, grabbed a sandwich at Subway and headed home. We did get his audio book to work most of the time, and I even got to drive while Mike took a little nap. 

Uneventful drive home. We love those kind! We even treated ourselves to a Maverick donut along the way. Yum. I think we were home by 10:30 pm or so. It was lovely to be back home in our own bed. There's no place like home.😀 And my Raspberries await! 

 

Peaches and raspberries for breakfast. There are not many better things in this world, in my opinion. 

Some watercolors I did while watching Gail do cards in her shed when Jonathan was doing his Zoom classes.

Finally! Raspberries!!

 

It's so incredibly hard to not just gobble these all up when they are so big and pretty! We DO eat a lot, but I think I'm supposed to be making jam. But I can't seem to stop eating them!!!

And the breakfast we look forward to ALL YEAR LONG. Well, *I* do, anyway. So yummy .

The little peaches came from Nancy Johnson 's tree. I only have about 20 on my peach tree this year. I picked one this morning, but it's just not quite ripe . Yet. Getting close....

Shower in Herriman, Hip woes, More Garden

 Double meaning here. They DID have rain showers in Central and Northern Uah.  We  We still have none here in the south.

Nick screwing in the Green board in their soon-to-be-finisbed basement bedroom and bathroom.

Nick has done all the framing down there on his own. Mike has the bathroom expertise he needed for next steps. The shower, mostly. And some plumbing question. 

Mike and I drove up to Herriman to spend a day at Nick and Kaylee's house. It was the kids' first day of school! But we didn't get there till 11pm, so we didn't see any of the kids. Kaylee is teaching at Emily's preschool MWF this year.  Jane was excited to return to elementary school on day 2, so that's good. Emily is in preschool, Jane is in First grade, Logan in third grade and Rachel in 6th grade. 

We left Cedar city so late (7:30 pm) because I was hosting our August Relief Society sisters here for dinner Wednesday at 6. We ate Eggrolls in a bowl, two kinds of green beans, bell pepper and cherry tomatoes with ranch dressing as our salad, with rhubarb/raspberry cobbler and ice cream sprinkled with more fresh raspberries for dessert . Yum yum! Garden fruits and veggies😀. 

I didn't tell them I was waiting for them to leave so I could go. But Mike got our truck packed while we were eating ( I did bring him a plate of food back in the bedroom so he wouldn't have to leave hungry), I got everything all cleaned up, and when the last person was gone, off we went! Nice, uneventful drive, our favorite kind. So blessed.

I didn't sleep worth beans on Wednesday night, though. I was awake a LOT. Mike went for a walk Thursday morning after we saw grandkids and had some breakfast. I went with him, but he was going too fast for my still-sore hip. I told him to "press on, walk your pace" and I took a cautious, slower route just through their neighborhood. 16 min. That's all I felt comfortable doing. 

I don't know what I did to my hip joint last Friday, whether it was a twisty move at pickle ball or an exercise I tried ( for hip strength, ironically), but it hurts to step up with my left leg. Stairs have to be taken one at a time. 

So I rested all day Saturday last week ( read a Mrs. Pollifax mystery, did laundry). Took ibuprofen. Such a wonder drug. It's been a week and sometimes it's better, sometimes it's not. I can walk with no pain, but I'm nervous about making a wrong move since I'm not sure exactly what I DID to injure it.

In Herriman on Thursday the 21st, Mike helped Nick with materials shopping, I came home from my walk, read the newspaper a bit online, and took a nap. When I ventured upstairs ( with much help from stair railing and the wall!), nobody was home, so I just read and petted their sweet puppy, Roz. Kaylee had taken Emily to her "Upstart" online preschool program orientation. 

Emily loves pickles so much she will lick the plate clean of pickle juice. I sent this photo to my pickle-loving niece, Elizabeth Ashwood.

Emily also did a little fashion show for me with some new costumes they'd acquired through a clothing swap. Here she is as Snow White.

AND Snow White with some really cute and snuggly "Frozen" Slippers! 

We just had a relaxing time with Emily. We ate lunch together and played some games. We visited briefly with the other kids when they came home from school. Played one and a half games of "Happy Salmon". That was silly fun.  Mike and Nick worked hard. We left at dinner time(5), stopped for a great burger at Apollo Burger and had another wonderfully uneventful drive home to cedar and were home by about 8 :30 pm or so. We DID enjoy gorgeous sunsets going and going home.

This morning I picked our bountiful harvest. And now I'm tired🥱

Green beans, cherry tomatoes, bell peppers ( kind of small) BIG cucumbers. There were raspberries, too. I thought Anne Diekema from the Library was going to come and pick them on Thursday, but it didn't look like she had. She came to our RS Dinner on Wednesday night, too. She requested to see my garden, so I took her on a tour, gave her a cucumber and gave her instructions on how to pick the berries. I picked about two cups full this morning. So, if she came, she took a cup and then left.

Sorry about the Google links. I don't know how to make them go away.

Sunflowers in August

We have Sunflowers. The bees and birds really like this big bush. It's so fun to sit on the deck and watch the little yellow finches, sparrows. They are all quite competitive and bossy!

 And then we have A Sunflower. I picked off all the other flower buds so just the one bloomed above the fence.

And then we have. . . .

THE SUNFLOWER (bud). It hasn't even bloomed yet! It's a giant already. I'd planned for it to bloom above the top of the fence, but not THIS far! I planned to tie something around the middle of the plant to lend support to what I hope will be a nice, large head of sunflower seeds. Now, instead of having a fabric tied around its waist or shoulders for support, it'll likely be more like around its knees!😁

Oh. My. Goodness. "Giant Sunflower" indeed!!

FYI, the dark green vegetation blob on the fence top to the right of  the sunflower is the neighbors honeysuckle vine. 

Garden and cat

 It was a good .. .no, GREAT harvest this morning. The best looking corn I've ever grown. Sadly, that's about all there is. The rest will most likely be puny and sparse.

This cat has been meowing at our door for a couple of days

 I think the neighbor fed the stray. The cat is really sweet and friendly and purr-y. And hungry. The neighbor posted it on Facebook, but apparently no one has contacted them about ownership. 

Kitty is so sweet MIKE is tempted to keep her!

Moonlight and roses

 

There's a half moon over the trees.

The roses are Levi's,  our  neighbor to the South.

Last day of Florida Little Beach House Vacation

 

🚗.   ✈️.   🛫.  🚗

Donna fixed us a nice big Southern breakfast this morning over at Sally's house. I think I might just start buying biscuits in cans. They are really good. Much simpler and faster than making from scratch. Add gravy and they are yummy. Or just as good with butter and jelly. Mmm.

THEN add sausage, scrambled eggs, and chocolate milk and we are stuffed and all set for the day of travel. A LONG day of travel. We won't be home until close to midnight. But it will be nice to get home after a very full week of fun in the sun and water. And heat. Ugh. Yesterday with clouds and rain was much more temperate. Still very very humid here in Florida. 

Corbin has a shorter  day before he's home by 6:30 p.m. or so. Depending on if there are no delays, we should have time to deliver Corbin to the baggage claim and Katie or Casey, then get back through Security and to our gate for the flight to St. George.

And we are stuffed. What a food- filled vacation! And the fridge is still full of food. Crazy.  Sally has leftovers from the breakfasts and all that pizza last night in HER fridge. We have drinks and snacks and chips and cereal and cheese and lunch meat and rolls and bagels and peanut butter. We did manage to finish off pancake mix, syrup and butter. Janet bought most of that food. We contributed very little in comparison. 

But we sure ate a lot! All day every day and now my clothes are much tighter. 

Bye bye, Little Beach House! We shall return😘

🩴⛱️🌊🌴🌴🛥️🐬🎣🐟🦈🥽🏊🥽🏊‍♂️

Happy Pioneer Day!

 First stop- Walgreens for Allergy nose spray. Poor Mike and his allergies. Those sprays really help with so many things. How we love modern medicine.

Next stop-- Indian Mound Museum. Sadly, they were closed long term for renovation. I got to read a few outdoor signs about it. 

Third stop -- find the dolphin tour boat place so we know where to go this afternoon. It wasn't an easy task due to major bridge and road construction in the area. But we found it eventually.

Fourth stop -- the Coral Reef souvenir shop. So much stuff.  Way too much made in China junk, basically. But I found some cute shells and starfish, and ornament and a candle. Corbin managed to find a surfboard shaped wooden. Key chain for each member of his family- with names on them!

After lunch we headed to the Dolphin tour place. It was a Hurry Up And Wait situation. We headed out to sea around 2:30 pm. No rain , but plenty of wind and not very smooth seas. "Weather" they call it. 

We did see some Atlantic bottle nose dolphins in the water and motored around to find more. Maybe saw about 25 or so. Some even leapt out of the surf! That was cool. Mostly it was just fins and backs.

Back inside the sound to snorkel. In sea grass! Ick. With water that was under 5 feet deep. Ick. Only a very few fishes. It probably would have been clear except 37 people all just walked everywhere around the boat.  It was just a sandy grassy bottom. Some found hermit crabs.

Definitely not my favorite snorkel trip. Sorry I spent so much money on it. Live and learn. 

Janet ordered an obscene amount of pizza for dinner tonight. They were beyond large. They were HUGE. Plus garlic knots, and salad. There were 5 different pizzas. Plus bread sticks!!!!

We are stuffed. Corbin swam at Sally's ( so did I, before dinner), then I showered and got ready for bed. Even without extreme heat and exhaustion, I'm still pooped out at night. Water time, boat time (and shopping!! -- [horrors!])...it all takes a toll on this old gal. Mike didn't even snorkel this afternoon. He just watched from the boat, and took a lovely shot of Corbin and me standing out in the sea grassy water.

Watching for dolphins out in the Gulf.

Some days are good hair days. Some not so much.