Sunday, April 29, 2012

Our Colorful Hobbit Week in District Twelve!!

It was just another typical week for us here at home.
Monday I worked on more projects for fleaology and craft stuff to blog about, as well as doing some blogging. Dad worked in the Sandy store and came home a bit early to work on getting the sprinkler system up and ready for the season.
On Tuesday I went and got Eva and brought her to Payson so I could take her on a double Grandma date with a new lady in our ward who babysits her 4 year old granddaughter every day.
We went to Payson park and had a picnic. Below Eva is shown back at the house pushing her dolling in the swing behind our house. Dad had an interesting day that day. He got to work with a Palestinian intern for the day. He said it was his first time to have extensive interactions with someone from the Mideast. He also got called in to donate blood, as the blood drive at work hadn't been too successful and everyone, evidently, knows he is the one to call if you need blood. Thus it was he was a pint low when he went to do his normal shift at the temple and came home exhausted.
I worked Wednesday and Thursday, having great sales days both days for an excellent sales month for me. Not everyone has been that lucky, so I just feel blessed. On Thursday Dad worked in the Spanish Fork store getting the chips moved from one isle to another in preparation for their major reset next week, which will keep him sequestered for a while.

He took his Dad to dinner on Wednesday night and then went to the temple with the Stake for Stake Conference on Thursday night. I had book club that night and had to miss the temple, but book club was great as always.
Friday was Emily's big 'Hunger Games' event. She had invited a lot of ladies from the ward who are close to her age to come and socialize and talk about the book. I had just finished the third book Wednesday night and was excited to talk Peeta vs Gale.
She set the dining table with half with fancy foods on a lace table cloth in fancy dishes, to represent the Capital, and then the other side was set with simple foods on the rough woven wool cloth I use for Bethlehem Dinner and used the wood plates and stoneware as well.




That night Dad and I went and saw John Carter.  We, of course, had heard it was a bust, but since the author of the book is a relative of friends (Edgar Rice Burrows) and we loved the Tarzan books we thought we would chance it.  So we found that we quite enjoyed it, and plan to listen to the 5 books, based on the character, now, since they are available free to down load on Livrivox.




Saturday I took off early for an estate sale in Salt Lake, and then had breakfast with my friend Jenn. Dad took off and met Trevor in Orem for the 'Color Me Rad' 5K. It was run by the same guy that does the Dirty Dash, with whom Trevor used to work. Here they are before the race.

Here they are after the race.
Beckie didn't quite know what to make of her colorful Grandpa.

When we both got back we worked on the yard in preparation for fleaology.

That night we went to a dinner for the Stake Presidency and High Council and their wives at the Stake Center. I got acquainted with the wife of another High Councilman. She has MS and was telling us that she has a shot every day, that she gives herself, shudder. She said its like mini-chemo and keeps the disease from progressing as fast. I thought that was amazing. After this first dinner, we attended the evening session of Stake Conference.

For our traditional dinner going out with Kews after the adult session of conference we enjoyed a second dinner at High Mexican with the Kews and also the DeWitts ... can I just say, its so great to be a Hobbit!!




This morning Dad and I were off early and got to attend Bishop and Sister Spangler's talks in the Park Ward before attending our Stake Conference in our building. All the talks we heard were amazingly uplifting and the spirit was strong all day.

Then tonight it was off to Trevor and Nell's for Balloon Hats and Hogies night to watch Cupcake Wars.  Our cousin Erik was a contender again.  It was fun to watch him on National TV but disappointing to see him come in 3rd of 4.  Still we know his cupcakes are yummy, having eaten them.

So that's it for our week, thanks for taking the time to check it out.  Be sure to check out the funny balloon hats below that Uncle Trevor made for everyone!













Sunday, April 22, 2012

Baby Beckie Narrate's Grandmere and Grandpere's Week!

"Hello to all my Perkins relatives!!  I am going to be a big help to grandmere and narrate this weeks happenings.  I am sure you all get tired of hearing it from grandmere's point of view.  Oh you might want to know she took this picture of me on Monday when Momma Bear brought me upstairs!"


"Grandmere was mighty proud at how this project turned out.  She is very busy getting ready for her flea.o.logy sale and we can smell paint fumes every time we step out, well every time Momma bear and Pappa bear, step out of our apartment."

"Grandmere and Grandpere were so happy to get an invitation to this old Park ward reunion at the Crumps' house down in Genola.  I didn't get to go, but Grandmere could hardly stop talking about it.  She said it was in honor of the Tukuafu's visit from Nauvoo.  There were lots of wonderful, spiritual stories.  Grandmere said that it was like attending a Fast and Testimony meeting while eating lots of yummy food.  Honestly, doesn't Grandmere realize that you cannot have yummy food and fast at the same time?"

"Grandmere told me that Sister Tulane, who was there, told about the time that she had been diagnosed with cancer and she went to her home teacher, brother Tufuaku, and asked him for a blessing.  He blessed her and told her not to worry, that she had been healed and there was no cancer left.  She went to have a scan the next day, and when the doctor read the scan he said he couldn't understand where the cancer had gone.  Grandmere loved that story."

"One thing that made her super happy was when Bishop Jasperson told them that he has been working with David Blaney and his wife and he expects them to be sealed in the temple sometime this summer!! David and Uncle Davin were best friends in highschool and our whole family loves him, except me and my dad of course, we have never met him.

Grandmere and Grandpere also came away with an invitation to stay with the Tufuakus in their round house in Nauvoo sometime...

... and as if one party is not enough for those party happy grands of mine, they also went to the celebrity dinner this week as well.   Here they are with their awesome friend Barb Moe, of course her handsome husband is the one taking the picture. 
Doesn't Grandpere look hilarious?"

 "Here they are with their other besties .... Jeff and Robin.  Thankfully you can't tell, but Grandmere told me that the hat that Jeff is wearing has a tiny raccoon head on the front .... ooh  creepy AND disgusting ... the things Elders bring home from their missions. (shiver)   I hope I never ever have to see uncle Davins' belt with the alligator head .... yucky!"
"Auntie Nell and Uncle Trevor are famous now, I hear.  She won an award for the cool snake hat she wore .... (She borrowed it from my cousin Scott's Aunt Sarah!)"

"Uncle Trevor was famous because Greg Wrubel also wore a BYU football helmet and when he was doing the MC thing, he pointed out Uncle Trevor and said that he now knows what it feels like when a girl shows up at the prom and sees another girl in the same dress.  I sure hope that never happens to me. Maybe Grandmere can help me find some cool vintage prom dresses when the time comes ....

...and look Uncle Davin and Aunt Bri came too .... don't they look cute?   I can't wait until I get big enough to play with my cousin Elias ... and do you know what?  They are going to have a baby girl this summer, and we will be in the same grade at school.  We will probably be best friends .... I can't wait to meet her!"

"Well, grandpere got to chat it up with Doug Wright ... he got to know him when Doug did some advertising for Macey's a place grandpere used to work...

... and grandmere just went right up to Amanda Dickson, her favorite radio personality, and had her picture take with her." 

"I  think grandmere and grandpere had a great week.  I know its been a good one at my house ... its been so fun to see the chicks growing and I also got to spend some time upstairs this week watching Uncle Brady and Aunt Becca's dog Attley, because the grandparents took care of him this week while my aunt and uncle went to Disneyland ... I can't believe they didn't think to take me ... I totally have plans to get into the Disney Princess thing, just like my mom did."

"P.S.  I forgot to mention that Grandpere ran in the Pay It Forward 5k here in Payson, and bested his time by 20 seconds ....  He also went to the temple on Tuesday night and took the day off on Wednesday to work at the Welfare cannery ... he drove up with the Stake President ... which meant he could pick up his Natural Gas car $1,000 later  (ouch) at the repair shop he uses that is near the Lindon cannery.  Isn't grandpere a great scheduler?"


Sunday, April 15, 2012

Shopping, Grandkids and Getting Ready for Fleaololgy!

So this week I mainly tried to focus on getting stuff ready for the upcoming flea.o.logy sale. ...  Dad was off doing 'test sets' in a couple of stores they are redoing, which kept him busy the first part of the week.

On Monday I drove into Provo to reclaim the mattress set that Spencer and Seth used in the house they moved into with friends.  After that, being in Provo, I made the best of it, spending a couple of hours at DI.

On Tuesday Emily brought Beckie up and shared the exciting news that she had slept through the night.  To celebrate I pulled this pink polkadot outfit out of my gift closet!!  I think she likes it.    Later in the day I made these funky cage dolls and blogged about them.  Dad had his normal evening at the temple.  That night he met a guy in the baptistery and later in the week ran into him when he got his Doc Marten's repaired in Spanish.  Small world.  (Yep, same Docs we bought when we went to pic Trevor up from his mission!!  Whoa!)

 On Wednesday I worked, but after work Spencer came by to watch the Jazz game and to play with Beckie.     Thursday was another work day for me, with an appraising session afterwards in Orem.  Dad had to take the day off as he is getting too many vacation days booked.  He mainly read .... Then ran to Salt Lake to take his Dad to dinner.
On Friday I went to Salt Lake to go junking with my friend Cathie.  Here we are at Abode, where she used to work, and where we got to visit with Stephi who is a former Treasure's dealer and a current flea.o.logy dealer.  Good times.  That afternoon Dad and I met up with the Moes in Salt Lake to help celebrate their anniversary.  We saw Hunger Games, a first time for Dad who is listening to the book, and a Snow White movie called Mirror, Mirror.  Afterward it was dinner and then a self serve yogurt place .... yummy.... a new experience for us, but we will be back!!

On Saturday I needed to take some fliers to this boutique in Provo, as one of our dealers for flea.o.logy was selling there and had offered to let us put fliers in her booth.  Becca needed the van and met me there to trade cars, so we got to peruse the sale together, that was pretty fun!!

After I got home, Dad and I worked on projects for a while, then Becca and Brady came down to return the ginormous mahogany bed they had been borrowing, and to deliver Attley, as we are going to watch her while they spend a week in So Cal.  A Disneyland first for Titan.  Brady says he's going to take tons of pics and vids of Titan's reaction to Pirates, as it was always his fav as a kid.    Good times.  That afternoon Dad and I tried out a funky Cajun Bistro here in town.  I had a wonderful roast beef Poboy ... just shy of having enough courage to have the alligator sausage poboy.  (A sandwich on a yummy, crusty small loaf)
More projects, and painting for me, and a bit of reading for Dad, who was plum tuckered, and the Kews came by to whisk us away to another movie and dinner.  The movie was called Salmon Fishing in the Yemen.  The Kews have unusual tastes in movies, but we LOVED it.  Fun and funky and some more fun too, I loved that one of the main characters had Asbergers ... and I loved how they treated that as a personality thing, not a dysfunction, very cool.

Today Dad spent the day doing high council stuff, while I spoke in two nursing homes' sacrament meetings.  We have a branch in our stake that is made up of three nursing/care facilities, including an assisted living place.  That was very cool, and I talked a new lady in the ward into signing up with me as the musical number.  She is super talented and it was very fun to get to know her better.  She said that when she first met me she had a strong sense that we had known each other in the preexistence.  Her name is Ginny.

I think the reason we have this branch is because we have a super innovative Stake President.  The branch is wonderful with about a dozen people involved in helping and serving these folks.  The high councilman in charge was telling us something that Dad told me a few weeks back.  Our Stake President has terminal cancer which started as prostate cancer.  He has had it for five or more years.  I guess his father died of the same thing, and as a nurse practitioner he has seen his own bone scans as well as those of his father. He said his cancer is more advanced than his father's was at his death, yet President Willardson feels no pain from his.  He just keep working and plugging away.  He is the man who is responsible for our having the temple built here, but that is another story.

So Dad missed our sacrament meeting, but joined me in Sunday School to help hold Beckie as Sam and Emily both teach.  Sam is one of the best, if not the best, Gospel Doctrine teachers I have ever had, and his lesson today was no exception. 

So that was my week, shopping, working and reinventing stuff.  Dad's was basically, working, reading and helping me reinvent stuff.

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Easter Fun

Well let the post about Easter begin.

Titan loved Easter he got the idea of

  • Picking up the egg
  • Putting it in the basket
  • Running to the next egg

He does love to clean up the toys at home so I’m sure it has something to do with that.

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Here he is with his basket and new Easter outfit from Grandma Summers. We didn’t match the basket and cloths on purpose.

Two Weeks that end with a Easter Celebration!

Its been a busy couple of weeks.  I was gone to California with Cathie and Jenn where I went to the flower market in LA, very cool, and the flea market at Pasadena City College, even cooler.



Dad stayed busy doing inventories while I was gone, going to church meetings and attending his Finnish missionary reunion.  To the left is shown those from his group with his mission president's wife second to the right in the front row.  It was the fortieth anniversary of serving in Finland all together.

Dad also got a chance to take his boys to see the Priesthood session of Conference at our old Stake Center in SLC.  He was thrilled because he got all four of his boys to go with him.  Then they went to dinner at LaCocina the place he usually takes his Dad on Thursdays.

This weekend we held our spring festival, the day before Easter ...

I found lots of fun ideas on Pinterest, including the individual nests that I repinned from Trina Moe Seamons.  I really loved the tiny little lights that I found at the flower market in LA too, they sort of made the table look magical.  I did eggs in ham in muffin tins, to the right, and Nell said her Grandma used to make them too, who knew?

....with Davin as acting Easter Bunny.

Here are Eva and Zach all ready for the hunt to begin.

Elias jumps right in, but what is so cool about the eggs?

Scott starts filling his basket!

It was a bit unexpected when Eva was the champ at gathering eggs.  Look how pleased she is.
"Oh yeah, I got eggs, I am THAT cool!"  note Zach watching her ... she was so nice to come and bring him!


Elle really got into the whole egg gathering thing, though she wasn't that big on the eggs that didn't have candy in them (You can tell by shaking them) so she tossed the hard boiled, dyed eggs on the ground and looked for her preferred eggs ... Then ....

... she found something better!  (Compliments of Uncle Sam and his brother Mike.)
"Gotcha!"  Elle was way more comfy with the chicks than Eva, who ran away from them with terror on her face.
Titan was pretty impressed with the little yellow fur balls ... and now for the founders of the fun!
"Ya know, I think the whole chick thing was a success, what do you think Mike?"
Everyone enjoyed the chicks, and later this summer Sam and Emily will have some fresh eggs to share.
Trevor is missing from this pic, because he had to work until 12:00 and came at the very end.  We were glad to have him though, even late and appreciated the effort he made to join us!

And this is my fav pic of the day, love the color combo!!