where I talk with my inside voice
When I started the blog on The Pipes Family Foundation website last year, I didn’t expect to be spending so much time doing genealogical research. I mean, it’s been an interest of mine for at least twenty years, and I really started to immerse myself in it during the pandemic, but then it was just for me. Now I’m investing...
My wonderful family indulges me every year with a day trip somewhere that they might not otherwise have gone. Whether it’s to visit an alpaca farm or to climb around on the trains, they always seem to enjoy themselves. Or they do a good job of faking it. This year it was the AB brewery tour downtown, followed by lunch...
Alas, poor Yorick, even though the Shakespeare Festival is celebrating its 25th anniversary year, we have never been to a performance – until today. I was offered seats through ECF, so we saw a modern reimagination of Hamlet and it was really good. I was getting a little tired by the end – it’s hell getting old – but I...
Laura was planning to take Jane to a UFL game and she asked if we would want to go along. Noah has gotten more into football his first year at college, so he was interested, but this was our first time going to a UFL game. It turned out to be a really good day. The Battlehawks beat the Birmingham...
Seventeen years ago the Lord blessed us with a baby girl, and we planned it so that her birthday would coincide with her older brother’s spring break from college. Now that’s planning ahead! Noah is home this week for a visit and it was nice having the whole family together for the birthday celebration, which included presents and cheesecake! In...
We got back last night from a 10-day vacation that included a 7-day cruise aboard the Norwegian Getaway. We stayed a couple of extra nights in New Orleans to explore the French Quarter. Honestly, the trip was exhausting, and I need a vacation to recover from my vacation, but we had fun and made lots of memories. Photos from the...
This is the time of year when I normally start looking ahead at a potential family vacation in the spring or the summer. The scheduling has been complicated by the fact that Noah is off at college now, but this is the new reality, so we just have to roll with it. He is applying to be a summer welcome...
Because ECF gave them a grant of $10,000 this year, the St. Louis Ballet sent me an invitation to watch their dress rehearsal for The Nutcracker. So Noah and I went to see it tonight. It was a really good show – the dancers were great and the costumes were very festive.
Homecoming has certainly become a bigger deal now that Noah is in college. I headed down to Columbia to hangout with my friend Troy (Carlton was sick or he would have come too) and watch the game against Auburn (which Mizzou just barely managed to win in the last minute of the game). I had never been to a homecoming...
Our firstborn son is now a college student. That day in the St. Luke’s delivery room, holding him in my lap, I sure wasn’t thinking about this day. It has always seemed so far away. But the sand keeps spilling through the hourglass, whether we want it to or not. So today we got our young man moved into his...
I took the kids to the History Museum to see the new and improved exhibit on the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair. They did a great job putting it together and there are a ton of interesting artifacts on display, including a lead crystal punchbowl very similar to my grandmother Ellen’s. This might be our last homeschool “field trip” since...
Team Tappmeyer organized a going-away party for Noah, right before he heads off to Mizzou. It was so nice of them to do that – they are going to miss him, but not as much as we are.
We just got back from an overnight stay in Columbia. Noah was on campus for Summer Welcome. It doesn’t seem like that long ago that I visited with my parents, but it was actually 32 years ago. Where does the time go? I didn’t take many photos this trip, but I did get a few inside the Agriculture building –...
Tonight we went to see Les Miserables at the Muny. Grandma Linda shared a few of her season tickets with us this year because this is their last year going (we might have to buy their seats for next season!). It was a really good show.
We celebrated Noah’s graduation tonight with dinner at Maggiano’s and a cake from Cheesecake Factory. We are very proud of that young man and all he has accomplished. We’re excited for him to head off to Mizzou in a couple of months.
We just got back from our 12-day roadtrip out west – with overnight stops in Colorado Springs, Grand Junction, Bryce Canyon and Flagstaff. We drove over 2,000 miles, ate some great food, and made some great memories. Some photos from the trip are available in my album, and check out the short video below.
