Mother's Day, New Furnace, Concert and Gardening

It seems a long time since last Monday and a lot of things have happened since then. But last Monday was when we celebrated Mother’s Day as a family—at least a local family, with those who were here in Utah which meant: Peter, Kortney and Eleanor and Erika and Jono. I made dinner for everyone and it was a very nice time. Peter and Kortney are participating in a fitness program that is overseen by Ryan and Ashleigh Di Lello (Cindy and Rob’s daughter and son-in-law) and they have a lot of dietary restrictions at the moment, so I made a spaghetti dinner using spaghetti squash instead of pasta and diced chicken breast as the meat. It was actually very good and everyone enjoyed it. I skipped the garlic bread, but made a nice green salad with lots of vegetable bits in it and then for dessert there were heaping plates of watermelon, cantaloupe and mangos. It was a hearty and healthy meal that we all enjoyed and which Peter and Kortney could eat guilt free and without breaking faith with their program. It is always nice to gather the family and I enjoy having our children surrounding our table and filling our family room. I enjoyed this Mother’s Day celebration very much. They also brought some fun and interesting gifts that I will enjoy. Peter brought among other things a couple of sets of reusable ice cubes which will be fun for summer meals and which before being frozen were engaging toys for Eleanor to play with. Eleanor is such a delightful little person, very verbal and interesting to interact with. Good evening for me. Tuesday was a banner day for our household. After more than six weeks, we had our new furnace and air conditioning installed with a humidifier and high efficiency filter set-up. When we made arrangements with this company, (and I liked this company very much,) I asked about them coming on a Saturday to install the furnace. They declined to come during the weekend, because all the suppliers that they work with are closed on Saturday and if they find during the installation that they are missing some important connector or other essential part then they are able to quickly get it, however on a Saturday that is not possible. But they said that if I was agreeable—and their employees are all licensed and bonded—then I could be home to let them in and get them started and then I could go to work and return home at the end of the day to find that the new furnace and air condition would be mostly installed. This is what I did—they told me that they would arrive sometime between 8:00 and 9:00 and I stayed home and waited for them. After they arrived I left and they went to work. It is interesting that the furnace which they installed is much smaller in size than the behemoth that it replaced and is 96% efficient, while the air conditioning unit, which is outside is twice the size of the one they replaced. They were still busy with the installation when I got home and continued to work from about 3:40 p.m. until after 7:00 when they finally finished and gave me a tour of the new equipment and helped me set up the thermostat and showed me how the various components work. By this time Paul was home, too and he got to listen to the presentation as well. Interestingly, it was a rather chilly evening and when they left the interior of the house was 62°, so we got to hear, see and feel the furnace kick on for the first time and really within minutes our house was warm and toasty. It has been warm enough since then that it hasn't been needed, but we are assured that it works—and we will let it rest until we need air conditioning. I’m not anticipating needing the furnace again for many months. Tuesday evening turned out to be super crazy. I expected the furnace guys to be finished by six or so. Peter had some meetings in Salt Lake Tuesday evening and Kortney was working so I agreed to keep Eleanor for the evening. She arrived at about 5:00 while the workmen were still here. Also at 7:04 p.m. my parents were returning from a trip to Las Vegas and I was to pick them up at the airport. I got ahold of my mother’s cell phone and told them to sit tight, I was going to be a little late, and after the workmen left, I popped Eleanor into her car seat and headed for the airport. I called Mom and Dad when I was almost to the airport and they met me at the door, so I didn't have to go in and I drove them home and when I got home,Paul had had a dinner of cold cereal and I gave Eleanor applesauce and pudding cups. (So much for continued healthy eating.) When Peter picked Eleanor up at a little after 10:00, I felt like it had been quite a full day. But Eleanor is loads of fun and I’ll take her whenever. After two quite full and busy days I was looking forward to an evening at home to catch up on things—I got home later than usual, finishing up some details at work and then running a few errands and when I got home, Paul was eating cold cereal again and he said that he had just heard from Erika who had had a anaphylactic reaction from season allergies after a run with a friend and as a precaution had gone to the local insta-care. Her friend had driven her there but had some demands on her time in the evening and so I took the next shift. By the time that I arrived Erika was back to normal and had been waiting but still hadn't been seen, so I waited with her and went into the examination room with her (it was like old times when I used to take children to the doctor) everything was fine and it was recommended that she start using an antihistamine especially when she is running outdoors and then I drove her home. I haven’t been to her apartment since she and Jono got all their stuff moved in and so I went in and got to see their “first apartment” in all its glory. She and Jono have a really cute place and they have a lot of storage and are very comfortably installed. Their living room has a large sectional sofa that makes entertaining possible and they have a full and active life with each other and a large circle of friends. We are happy for them. Friday was the last concert for Erika’s season with Salt Lake Choral Artists. This concert was titled: Caribbean Excursion: Songs from the Islands and the Coasts of the Caribbean Sea. The music was lively and the choirs were excellent. There were familiar numbers (like The Girl from Ipenema—which isn't strictly from the Caribbean, but it has that “coastal” feeling, and Yellow Bird.) And other numbers that had the calypso feeling but were unfamiliar before that night. The concerts are now held in a Catholic Church building that has wonderful acoustics and makes the choirs sound particularly live and beautiful. The conductor has several choirs who all perform, a masterworks group, a youth honor choir and children’s choir and the big choir that Erika belongs to. All of them performed with aplomb! It was a nice evening for Paul and me and we enjoyed ourselves very much. And Erika always looks like she is having a great time being a part of it. It is quite a commitment but she seems to find it a fulfilling part of her life. Saturday I started the day with a breakfast with the nuclear Gates Family minus my sister Liza. David was in town and Stephen came up from Pleasant Grove and my parent joined us for breakfast at the Little America. They have extensively remodeled the interior and it was quite fabulous. David was the one who gathered us all together. My dad commented how wonderful it was to have three of his four children around the same table. We had some good laughs and shared funny stories and experiences and generally enjoyed being together. But the real activity of Saturday was yard work. While I was at breakfast Paul fertilized the lawn front and back and worked on the sprinklers. He had the back yard all finished when I got home and all the sprinklers were up and running. We had one valve that wasn't working in the front and needed to be replaced which he did in the afternoon, up to his elbows in water and dirt, but successfully done, anyway. He had also planted our log planter and the south window box which looked just lovely when I arrived home. We went to the nursery and picked up flats of impatiens, our garden bed choice for this season and a few geraniums as well. We pepped the beds with mulch and fertilizer and Paul turned the bed and then I prepared the bed with racking and arranging the drip system and then planted the flowers. We have been buying our bedding plants from an independent distributor for the last few years, but they are never very far along. This year we bought plants that are already quite far along for bedding plants and they are already in flower—they aren't mature yet, for sure, but the bed already looks colorful rather than a few little green spots. We are hoping for load of color this year. We really worked hard all day on Saturday. I had put together a crock pot stew in the morning which was nice to have a warm meal without a lot of preparation at the end of a busy day.