2nd Annual Pie Celebration Day!

Happy 15th Anniversary to Deborah and Ian!

Deborah and children joined us on Monday to spend the week. They are a diverse group that brings laughter and joy into the home.There may also be a few unhappy moments, but they don't linger long.  Wednesday evening Rebecca and children arrived from their drive from Utah, having delivered Dan to Springfield to catch his plane back to Okinawa.

I had noticed a decrease in our daily egg production and Sandy suggested it was due to a snake.  I had not seen one there for some time and didn't pay much attention to that, until this past week.  Over the nesting boxes we have a hinged lid over the top of the boxes.  I peeked in there this past week, and there he was.  Life was good for this guy; he just had to lean around the box and pick out an egg or two when ever he was hungry.  I removed him, all 6 1/2 plus feet, to the field, but suspect he will be back.  Meanwhile, we are getting more eggs each day and I thoroughly check the coop for snakes.

Thursday evening we had a strong gust of wind blow through for only a few minutes, but the accompanying lightening and thunder made for a spectacular light and sound show. Very brilliant. Then about 7:30 am Friday, an intense tempest and blustery storm blew through dumping hail and rain on the area.  This cell may have been associated with the storm that hit Branson and resulted in the capsizing of the 'duck' boat on the lake. I was on my way to the St Louis Temple at the time with 10 other ward members and missed all the excitement.  Deborah photo journaled the event and you can see that the children had a great time.

And they were most helpful with the cleanup that morning.

Saturday was the official 'Pie Celebration' day from 2-4.  We had invited family, friends, church members and neighbors to join us.  Since Rebecca is the pie maker, she had to hustle to get all the pies made.  She had prepared 4 or 5 that she froze before they drove to Utah, but she had less than three days to get all the other pies made.  I did my part by baking two pumpkin pies, and Josh made two Irish Beef pies but the remaining 18 (yes we had 22 pies!) were all cooked by her. Here is a list of the various pies:  Chocolate truffle, pecan, chocolate chess, lemon chess, toll house, pumpkin, apple, banana cream, oreo carmel, Irish beef pie, and chicken pot pie. Several of the grandchildren 'helped' peel the apples for that pie. We rearranged the living room furniture to accommodate chairs for seating, primed the younger children to go into hiding and had everything set up by the time the first guest arrived.  A wonderful time was had by all; we had approximately 60-65 come (includes family members).  It was fun to sit and visit with people.  And when the dust cleared, we still had 6-7 pies remaining.  One attendee brought three of his own pies which were well received.  We unleashed the grandchildren on the remaining pies, but will still be eating pie for a while.  Deborah and crew left shortly thereafter to return to their home. Next year I think we can make fewer pies!

With both Deborah and Rebecca here, we did some serious planning for our upcoming Fox family gathering in Nauvoo.  We have the food mostly arranged, housing assigned and are now trying to 'herd' the cats as to what time we can get to the temple as a family.

And oh, today is my birthday!

A slower, albeit not less busy week

Sunday, 15 July 2018

This was a week of transition.  Miranda and children stayed until Wednesday morning so life around the house was not dull.  While Dan was still here on Monday the whole family, and Sandy (yes!), went to Cranfield Beach to play in the water.  That was a refreshing break for them since the temperatures have been in the 90s most of the week. While they were having fun in the sun, I was busy at the rent house. Dan invited the sister missionaries in the afternoon for some preparation day activities. 

 

 And Rachel is too cute not to add this photo of her:

Tuesday I installed vinyl planking in the kitchen.  At least I was inside with air conditioning.  Because I rented a floor roller (100 pound roller), I needed to complete this job in one day so as not to incur additional rental charges.  And this house is 15 miles away, so once I leave town, I don't come home until the job is done.

Then on Wednesday, when Miranda and children drove off to visit Kera and family, I was busy sanding the hard wood floors of two bedrooms, hall and living room, approximately 700 square feet.  Another long day.  These floors had previously been sanded by someone less adapt at this procedure than I, as attested to by the number of 'divots' in the floor.  Because it is a drum roller (about an 8 inch diameter), if you hesitate or bounce the drum, it will leave roller marks in the floor which require more sanding to remove. And the sander weights more than 100 pounds!  And yes, I do add a few divots of my own.  I managed to get the two bedrooms and hall mostly done in one day, but the living room has proven to be a real challenge.

Sanding floors is a multi step process, starting with 20 grit sand paper to remove the layers of whatever the floor was coated with. Then switch to 40, and 60, then 80, and finally 100 grit.  That is a lot of walking slowly back and forth.  And if you didn't get it cleaned off with the 20 grit, chances are good it will still be there at the end of the day; so it is important to do a thorough job first. The living room had an amazing number of divots, which may be why they stained that floor, which is why it has been difficult to sand. The wood absorbed the stain differently, so as I sanded it the first couple of times, there were these color variations across the floor that were hideous and unacceptable; more so since it is the first room one sees walking into the house. So I came home.

This is the before picture of the living room.



This is what it looked like after day one of sanding.


I was back on Thursday and finished the last sanding in the the bedrooms.  I also rented an 'edger' to do the edges since the drum sander gets to about 6 inches of the edges.  The edger is a 6 inch orbital sander that takes off if you don't have both hands on it.  But it does a great job along the baseboard. I had stalled doing the living room until last, so by late afternoon I attacked it again with 20 grit paper and had some success.  Another late evening, but one more day should make this a nice looking floor.

This is one of the bedroom floors, mostly finished.

Friday, Sandy and I drove to St Louis to attend the temple.  A young man from our ward received his mission call (to the same mission his cousin was called to a year ago) and was going to the temple for his first time on Saturday.  We thought it too much for Sandy to drive up and back all on the same day, so we made a two day event of it.  She even drove 45 minutes so I could catch a cat nap.  We did a session and then went to Five Guys for dinner.  I know, a rather romantic play to eat while in St Louis.  But, Sandy ate an entire hamburger and her share of their great fries. One of the workers in the temple has a large home near the temple and has offered their guest room for out of towners needing a place to stay.  So we connected with him and stayed in their home.  He is an eye doctor (retinal surgery and such) who I believe attended Harvard Medical School and is in the  process of retiring since President Eyring called him to serve as the next temple president starting in November.

The next morning I observed that there were four generations of the Maple family in attendance as Jordan (Rhymer) received his endowment. Following the session, we visited briefly and then headed home. 

Add to the list of things I did not know:  there is a Costco only a few miles from the temple, and on our way home.  So we left them a small inheritance as we traveled homeward.  We had planned an Aldi stop in West Plains and they got what Costco didn't.  But we should be stocked up for the return of Deborah's family on Monday, and Rebecca's on Wednesday. This is especially important since Rebecca has at least a dozen pies to make by Saturday afternoon.  We are hosting the second annual birthday pie-day celebration at our house then.

At the end of this week, Sandy is better than at the beginning; that doesn't mean she didn't have some dips in the middle though.  She has been walking daily, went to the beach on Monday, attended the temple and today the scale indicated a higher weight than she has seen in weeks. Your prayers, calls, notes are appreciated. 

The Great Fox Adventure continues

The beat goes on in the Fox household.  With her family reunited for a couple of days, Rebecca continued to cook yummy meals and prepare for the family drive to Utah, with a stopover in Tulsa to visit with Miranda's family.  They left on Tuesday and the house was empty, ...and very quiet, for two days.  Thursday Adam flew into Springfield and Kristy picked him up and they drove here.  Andy, Kera and three of their children, along with Miriam, David and Emily (MO Foxes) - they had been staying there for a few days - drove over in time for dinner.  Then on Friday Miranda and her family joined us.  Is this a gathering of Mormon Mommies  or family coming to visit?

We had 18 sleeping and eating at the house; no one complained about sleeping on the floor and there was plenty of food (thank you to all the great cooks!). The children kept busy reading, playing games, chasing chickens, doing chores for Grandpa and having fun.

The adults enjoyed, well, they enjoyed just being together and talking. Of course there was the usual game playing and food preparing.  You can't play 5 Crowns without 7 layer dip!  And under an expert's direction, Emily made two batches of tasty brownies.  With this family, there is never a lack of good food to eat.

I was able to spend the beginning part of the week working at the rent house; got the tub surround tiled. Now ready to install bead board and a new vanity.  The end is in sight.

Meanwhile, Adam's tenant moved out and there was a two to three day window to get it turned around for a new renter.  Since Adam was here, I had him help me do a couple of hours of work.  Some of the shingles had blown off, and we spent an hour on a 6/12 pitch roof replacing them; that is a little out of my comfort zone.

Too soon the fun ended, as Andy's family left for home after Saturday sothing about preferring to drive a two lane windy, steep and crooked road in the daylight. Kristy and her three left right after sacrament meeting to get Adam to Springfield to catch his flight home. 

Miranda and family will leave on Tuesday and we will be alone for a week.  Hope we can survive.

More photos of our time together.

Mom continues to gradually improve. She has actually shown a small weight gain, but that is better than the daily lose she was experiencing.  Her energy level has increased - it had to in order to keep up with all the children. 

Fox revolving door continues

Sunday 1 July 2018

We began another month with a beautiful Sunday in the lovely Ozarks.  As usual, we had an exciting week.

Miranda, with her 4 young ones, drove over on Monday to join Rebecca and her 3 youngest for the week.  Miranda left on Friday and Andy with Matthew and Katie plus Jonathan's David drove up late that night.  Then about noon on Saturday, Dan White with Joshua and Marian arrived from Okinawa.  And Andy and crew left after dinner.  So for now we only have Rebecca's family staying with us.  It is a little confusing knowing who is coming next and what bedroom they are staying in. Some of this week's visitors with Sandy.

While Miranda was here, there was a lot of fun, games, giggling and activities during the week.  The children went to the library and came home with a pile of books; they got to the beach at Cranfield and had a great time playing in the water and staying cool.  We have had 90+ degree weather all week, and the humidity has been high too.

I have been busy working at the rent house, spending 4-5 hours a day there and coming home to take care of chores.  I was able to get part of the tub surround tiled on Friday, so there is progress being made.  Miranda and Rebecca showed up on Friday with all the children, so I put them to work.  There were a bunch of odds and ends in the basement that needed to be brought up stairs; their many helpful hands got that task done in a fraction of the time it would have taken me to make many trips up and down stairs.

Rebecca and I broke away one day this week to watch the new Jurassic World movie.  I enjoyed it, although the animals did reek  a lot of vengeance on the humans (the ones that were not treating them very nicely).

Saturday morning was the annual Red, White and Blue Festival at the local college; this was their 19th year.  The local police department sponsors a 5k run as part of the activities.  This was my 4th year to participate in the run.  Rebecca ran as well as did Katie and Matthew (which is why they drove up the night before). Matthew took off to run with the faster runners and came in 10th overall; Katie had a great sprinting finish and was 2nd in her age group; Rebecca was 2nd in her age group.  They lumped all the over age 60 into one group; as I ran by the lead police office, I shouted that I had worked hard for those extra 10 years and should not be relegated to the over 60 crowd. When awards were handed out, he did acknowledge my request.; and since I was the only over 70 male, I got the first place award. It was extremely humid and I was wringing sweat out of my running shirt.

Sandy and I attended the fireworks display at the college last night.  We left at 7pm to get good seats and read books until it was dark enough at 930 for the 17 minute fireworks display.

About 10 years ago when Rebecca's family was here, Johsua wanted a tree house.  That is how the tree house and zip line came to life in the side yard.  This year Riley wanted a pirate ship.  Rebecca researched on line and found free plans for what appears to be a cute ship.  So this past week we have been busy in the Fox shipyard constructing a pirate ship.  It should be completed this week, but I see it growing with yearly modifications as the family continues to visit over the years. Here were some of our 'helpers':

About the time that Rebecca's family arrived, we had 5 chicks hatch; they are still alive and growing. But the mom has become an attack hen if you get too close to them. Like violent!

We have another busy and exciting week ahead.  Rebecca's family will drive west, Adam will fly out, Kristy will drive him here, Andy's family will be here, and possibly Miranda's family as well.  We almost need a full time maid to keep the bed sheets clean!  But it has been wonderful having so many family members visit us the past couple of months.  We have a great family! Sandy continues to show positive signs of improvement, although she does have an off day with less energy.

Hope you all have a safe and wonderful Independence Day!