Events That Fill Our Lives

This week, included lunch/dinners out with friends and family.  A graduation, a recital,a book club meeting,  a farewell party, a family dinner and a memorial service.  We were just grateful that we were able to attend them all, though at times that did take some juggling to accomplish.  Andall of these events have one thing in common.  They are all about loving and celebrating people.  Dad and I are so glad to have so many wonderful people in our lives, and for all they (you) do to enrich life for us.  On Monday Dad worked while I recovered (slept) from the antique show.  That night we went and saw a musical version of the Secret Garden, which we mostly enjoyed.

On Tuesday, he was off to do more heavy lifting and shifting as he redid yet another store.  I got to meet friends, Barb, Teri and Robin for a birthday lunch at Mimi's Cafe.  Teri's birthday is just four days after mine, so its fun to celebrate together.  Since I was out, I spent the rest of the day shopping. (With me you can almost always read that as junking.)  Dad worked his normal shift at the temple that evening.

 On Wednesday Dad and I both worked, with me trying to get all the goodies I had taken to the antique show reinstated in my booths at the mall.  Its a huge undertaking and often requires resetting my booth setup, so in a way it was sort of like what Dad does all the time.

After work on Thursday Dad and I met up at Brigham Larson  Pianos for J. Scott's piano recital.  Its amazing how well he plays now, such a talented young man .... and doesn't he look like a musician?  Dad went off to dinner with them all, while I headed home and finished up preparations for the Walden Ladies Book Club that was meeting in my parlor that evening.  Book Club went great, and I am sure dinner was good as well.

On Friday morning Dad and I met up again, this time in Pleasant Grove at Eva's preschool, where we had the opportunity to see her graduate!! Yep, hard to believe she starts Kindergarden in the fall.

After that Dad and Trevor were back to work, but I got to go do a bit of Junquing with Nell and the girls, before returning to their house for lunch.  It was fun to see Nell's great Alphabet wall.  I think it turned out so cute!!

On Saturday, after Dad got back from his run, he got to work on starting the frame of the garden/guest house we are building.  And by 'We' I mean him, with very minimal help from me.

 I ran into the antique mall for a few hours where I redid a display in the north building that I am in charge of keeping fresh.

Later that afternoon Dad was off to the temple to fill a shift from someone who had worked for him when we were in Hawaii.  I got some final shopping (grocery this time) done for the Walker's farewell party that we were hosting with the Moes, as in at their house and they did most of the work.  We had a smaller crowd than we had hoped for, but since it was a holiday weekend and very windy which meant we were kept inside, its good it wasn't any larger.  Still we had a great reunion of old Geneva Heights 7th warders, mostly ex patriots, but the Wilmores brought us up to date as to what is going on in the ward where Scott once served as bishop, and as such, is very close to our hearts. 

On Sunday, I went with Scott to hear his speaking assignment in another ward in our stake.  His partner was supposed to be a returned missionary in the stake, but after a half a dozen attempts to connect, Dad finally 'leaned' on Spencer who came through with an amazingly well done talk, not even considering that it was concocted that morning.  The meeting was lovely and the spirit there was strong.

 Dad then attended a couple of meetings with the ward he is over, while I returned home for a couple of hours before we headed north to his cousin William Maben's memorial service. William was exactly his age, and a musical/mathematical genius who also suffered from mental illness.  It was really a lovely, lovely service, showing the beauty of a life that was imperfect in so many ways.  Shown to the right are Aunt Karen, and William's sister Dana.  The services were held in  Gilgal  gardens in Salt Lake.  I showed these same gardens to Dad when we were dating, so it was truly a bitter sweet afternoon.  Oh and the music was divine.  A lot of taped examples of William's compositions, as well as a lovely, well executed, violin solo by his sister, of one of his favorite classical pieces.  William had a friend from High School who has stuck by him through thick and thin, including William in many, many family events over the years, despite the fact that William often showed up 'disheveled' to say the least. (according to aunt Karen).  It really made me wish that we had made an effort, rather than being put off when his mental illness started to encroach while we were all still young adults.

This is one of many structures in the garden.  Gilgal was the back yard of a man who served as a stone mason and a Mormon bishop for more than 10 years.   When I was in college it was privately owned, and people would just walk behind the buildings surround it to enjoy its amazing sculptures.  It has since been 'saved' and is now a public park, and is just east of Trolley Square. 

Dad and I got home just in time to get the food ready for our bimonthly family dinner.  Emily and Sam were off having dinner with two of his brothers, and Ashley and Andy were otherwise occupied, so besides missing Ben, we had a great evening with the additions of Nell's sister Alexis and Darby's friend Phil.  We had Navajo Tacos and lots of laughs while swinging babies in blankets in the parlor.

Its been a busy and fulfilling week, made more wonderful by our associations with all of you.  Love and Hugs from Mom and Dad (Paula and Scott)

Happy Birthday to Me and My Marci Week.

This week started with my birthday!  Yeah for me.  Dad worked, as he always has meetings Monday which makes it hard for him to take it off.  I drove to SLC and did some junking then met Dad at the Parrish B and B.  The house was not much bigger than ours and hosted 5 guest rooms.  Can you guess what conversation that sparked?  Yep, we drew floor plans of our house on napkins with walls to be moved etc.  Still thinking.

On Tuesday, after sleeping in until a luxurious 8:00 AM, we had breakfast and spent the day junking together.  With an antique show coming that weekend, it was a good time to find some last minute items.  To the left is my friend Marci's Steampunk booth at Vinestreet Antiques in Murray, where I got to talk to owner Rusty about their last minute plans to do a booth at the Acorn Antique show on Saturday.  That was good to hear, as Marci has never done an antique show before and I knew we would have a blast with her there.

Dad finished off the day by running to do his evening shift at the temple, while I just junked my way on home...

Wednesday I worked as usual, and packed up lots of good stuff to take to the show.  Dad also worked, and gathered some healthy goodness for me to make green smoothies for our Girls Spa Night that night.  Above is a picture of 'the girls' at spa night.  Dad and Sam kept an eye on the younger kids, though Eva joined us for a lot of the event.  I think everyone had fun.  We had a gal come and do glitter toes, Emily's friend Katie did massages, and Emily did facials.  Doesn't Kim look adorable with her face mask and green smoothie?

Eleanor was not altogether sure about the whole 'Mask' thing, as were none of the one year olds.  "Do I really want a kiss from 'Mommy'?

I was super happy to have all the realistically possible girls there.  Britt of course had to take a miss, but maybe next year we can plan it when she is in town.  It was very laid back, and relaxing.  I think Bri fell asleep getting her massage, but then she did predict that would happen ... oh the joys of pregnancy .... yawn.

On Thursday both Dad and I worked, then he took his Dad to dinner.  I gathered more goodies for the show while at work, as well as doing a couple of the French signage projects I do , while there.  Then when I got home I worked on taking some rusty bed springs apart to sell at the show.  When Dad got back from SLC we got into action and got the van loaded, and it was FULL!!  I knew I would be doing a booth, at an antique show, on my own, for the first time ever, and knowing that I was going to need to fill it up, led me to dig a little deeper, I think.  I had  been saving the best of my findings for months, and after doing the loading, and after Dad had headed upstairs, I finished up yet more of my reinventions for the show.

Early, early Friday morning I was off for my drive to the Weber County fairgrounds for the antique show set up, almost a hundred miles.  I drove in tandem with Bruce Allison who I used to share a booth with, then he helped me unload the van, before we worked together unloading his.  Our booths were side by side, and Fred, Cathie Cox's husband, came over and asked if it was a 'trial seperation', of course we all laughed.  Several other dealers asked about it too, like we had had a fight and split, so funny. All that happened is that when I was in Hawaii, there was a show and he did it alone and did half again as much money, pretty convincing.  We had done it together to facilitate the freedom of having a partner to watch our stuff so the off duty one could wander the show.  This way we still found that we could watch each others' booth, but we both had our best shows ever, so it was a good decision.

It was super fun to have Marci at the show, and her booth was amazing.  She and Rusty basically moved her whole Steampunk booth from the mall, shown above (Monday).  Her booth was crammed with people the whole weekend, but I am not sure if there were very many people who appreciate it like I do. Most had never heard of the style, but all wre in awe like thelady, who professed to LOVE IT, said that she thought it looked like Frankenstien's Castle .... well, it sort of does, actually, when you think about it.

That night when I was driving home, Dad called and told me to come to Becca's new place, as they were finishing up her move.  I guess virtually everyone had come to help, except Darby, who had to work and who sent her friend Phil in her stead.  The place is so charming, they were so lucky to have a chance to get it.  Becca is having fun with the decorating part, which PROVES she really is my daughter!! (Not that there was ever a question mind you.) And now Brady and Phil have totally bonded having wrestled Brady's gun cabinet down the stairs and into place .... I am just sure Brady is grateful they don't have a piano anymore.

Saturday I was off early again, about the time Dad took off for his longest run ever 7.9 miles and now he has dreams of running a half marathon. 

We had a neighbor use our yard for a garage sale to raise money for a hoped for adoption that day, so Dad couldn't mow again.  Its been so weird, every time he would have had a chance to mow in the last 3 weeks, its been raining, or there's been a sale set up in the yard.  Its looking like a jungle out there ... so funny.

He did manage to keep busy though, as he put in the last two footings for my garden house.  Its so exiting for me to see it actually happening, although the site is far from impressive at this point.

As I mentioned the sale went well and I sold a ton of stuff.  I also bought a ton of stuff, but then, that is my business.  I actually found very little I wanted for myself, but did get some good deals for resale.

On Sunday, Dad was off to his meetings with the ward he works with, while I was off to the north again.  Bruce had planned to help me load the van when the show closed, and I was grateful to give Dad a by, as its not really his favorite thing.  Imagine my delight when he showed up anyway.  Take down is always SO fast when he comes, as he can load the van as fast as I can pack up, we almost always finish about the same time. 

I did stay, however, after he left, to help other dealers.  Cathie and Jenn shared a booth for the first time. (My flea.o.logy partners) and neither of them did well, so they were dragging a bit getting their stuff down. It was fun to help them, as well as a couple of other dealers.  Then we got the word that someone had a welder's mask  outside and dealers were out there looking at the amazing eclipse.   Above is Marci taking her turn, while Gary, of Cat's Cradle in Provo, looks on.  That was a serindipitus moment.

Well that was our week.  Dad and I still have lots to think about in terms of the changes in our life style running a B and B would require, but we have talked about it often enough over the years to know there is a real interest there.

Hope your week was great, and that you managed to keep busy.  We know that Becca and Brady certainly did.

Ashley Wins Disk Golf Tournament!!

Here's a bit of fun news that Andy sent to Dad.  Be sure to text or email Ashley with congrats!! acphgreen@hotmail.com,  or 801-369-9910


Ashley was mentioned in a yahoo news story about the disc golf tournament we played in last weekend. Here is the excerpt that mentions her:

In the women's open division, it was Ashley Hall of Orem, Utah, who was crowned champion with a final score of 24-over par, while local Karina Polasek followed
in second place at just a stroke behind, scoring 25-over par.


The whole link is here:
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/joey-kozlowski-wins-disc-golfs-creekside-open-salt-230400383--spt.html

This is a picture of Paige Piece  (love her initials), the reigning women's world disk golf champ, and all I can say, is she just better watch her back .... Go Ashley!!

Bibs, Glitter Toes, Bazaars,Cafe Rio, a Window, Dark Shadows and Mother's Day

Its been a mixed week.  On Monday I helped make bibs at We Can for an orphanage in China.  After that I checked out the new Le Bodacious Boutique in Santequin.  Dad and I had our family home evening group that night at Dockstaders.

On Tuesday a pedicurist came to our house and gave me 'glitter toes'.  I bought a bunch of gift certificates from her to have her come back and do them for all my girls who are mothers for their mother's day gift next week. Dad did his regular evening at the temple that night.

Wednesday I worked, and then after work went to help my friend Jenn set up her booth at the Beehive Bazaar.  I love this necklace that she made, and found some hang tags and a Curious George bag to buy.

After work on Thursday I met Davin, Bri and Elias at the Cafe Rio in Orem.  We had a great dinner, as one always has at Cafe Rio, and a nice visit as well.

I always love one on one with my kids when I can get it, and thought that was a lovely Mother's day gift.  Dad was at home working on cementing in the supports for the garden house he is building me for my birthday and mother's day and maybe Christmas and our anniversary too!  (For perhaps five years worth.)

After Cafe Rio I picked up Robin in Highland and we ran over to Dear Lizzie's for their big sale.  We had a lot of fun, and I found the same blouse shown on this mannequin, and used my super coupon to take it home!! 

On Friday Emily invited me to go to a rummage sale with her that is for a lady in our ward who is trying to raise money to adopt a baby.  Spencer drove up as we were driving away and allowed us to hi-jack him.  It was definitely more fun that way.  Dad and I had a wedding reception that night, and got a chance to have a nice long chat with one of the other High Councilmen and his wife.

I worked on Saturday and Dad stayed home to 'slave' for me.  He put in the other two supports for the garden house, then stripped off the nasty aluminum windows from the Kitchen window.  The windows are all hidious, but the one that covered the kitchen window caused an accumulation of gunge between them and the antique wood framed windows.  I just wanted them gone, so I could have clean windows ... Dad worked his magic and Voila!!

When I got home from work, after I was done ooohing and awwwwing over the window, the Kews came and got us and we went and saw Dark Shadows, then had Mexican food.

On Mother's day I awoke to the smell of sausage cooking. Before long Dad brought up this amazing looking tray.  Yummy, Yummy.  Who knew that one day be would become a great cook!! He did have to help me eat it though, as it was enough for a small country.

It was also a nice surprise when Dad told me that Becca had made me a corsage.  I loved the colors, I think this blue may be my new favorite.  Thanks Beckster!!

Then Sam mentioned to Dad that there were flowers on the front porch that they had been there since Saturday.  It turned out to be 2 dozen roses and chocolates too, from my fourth favorite son. (Ben, and his choice of words, not mine)

So after  a nice mother's day program at church we  headed to Becca's for our last family dinner there.  She and Brady are moving into his parents, very nice, basement apartment and they are renting out their house.  Their payment was swamping them, and so to allow them to save for another house, they are renting it out, pretty much for the payment. 

I received lovely gifts, cards and flowers.  Thanks kids.  Nell brought a pan of the 'homemade Twix bars' that I love instead of cake.  You can't tell in this picture but Trevor is holding a lighter over the pan of yumminess for me to blow out .... it was very amusing, just look at J. Scott.  We all had a great time.  Afterwards we headed up to Heuers to drop off the second season of Downton Abbie, then to visit with Barb for a bit about an upcoming project.

So that was our week, full of projects, work, fun with kids and grandkids and all the other things that are making our golden years, well, golden.

How People I Love Messed Me Up This Week!

This was an amazingly busy week.  I got ready for our first flea.o.logy of the year here at the house.  Wow, we had 34 dealers, about 8 more than our biggest sale last year.  Not withstanding I have great friends and family, I did run into a couple of funny bumps, shall we say. 

 Monday I blogged and did projects for flea.o.logy.  Dad and I had dinner together that night and played, what else, Scrabble.  Tuesday was much the same, but I also spent hours and hours raking, sweeping and bagging nature's litter from the north drive as we had rented it to vendors.  Dad, of course, spent the evening in the temple, after an amazingly taxing day at the Spanish Fork Macey's where they are making BIG changes.  In fact, that is really how he spent his work week.
Wednesday I went to work and did a nice rework of a display space with Kathy Ainge.  It was her brain child copying a magazine picture she has seen and it turned out lovely.  After work, Dad helped me for a couple of hours to finish up the north driveway.  In all it took about 8 man hours (6 of them were woman hours) to clean it up, but it looks great ... I love the boat not being there. (It spent the week in the neighbors driveway)  I just wish one of the kids would buy the boat (currently in need of repairs after its ONE trip last summer.)   Our final act was to put up colored triangular plastic flag pennants along the fence so people would know we were having the sale this week
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Thursday was more of the same, other than the fact that I spent extra time at work packing stuff from my booths to bring home for the sale.  The evening was spent with Dad and me decluttering the other walks and the other driveway.  Dad even mowed down weeds in the dirt driveway (oh how fun to have 3 driveways) while he was mowing the lawns.  I did manage to get a couple of garden boxes cleaned out and plant some acorn squash and tomatoes. 

Friday was a big day for frustration, but also one of getting a lot accomplished.  The three flea.o.logists had decided to make matching aprons so we could be more identifiable.  Of course, though I had had the fabric for a month, I saw no need to start it until the day before I needed it.  I spent an hour searching for my sewing machine, figuring I must have found a fun new place to tuck it away when I was cleaning my house to get ready for Emily's Hunger Games Party the week before (BTW the cleaning I did for her party, really helped when I had overnight flea.o.logists staying here, and also had a couple of dealer and friends who wanted tours, so thanks Em)  At any rate I could not find it, I finally called Spencer who uses it to make bags for his wood glasses company, I left a message.  The second time I called he told me he had taken it to his apartment ... as  "You never use it."   He DID bring it right back and I was able to make the apron from 12:00 midnight until 2:00 A.M. that night .... Yawn  Here he is with Seth as peeps set up for the sale Friday Night.

I supervised the setting up from 2:00 PM until almost 6:00 PM, including setting up my own booth.  Then the one 'spoiled brat' thing I did for myself, was to leave Dad holding the bag while I ran to Salt Lake for a Jane Austen (JASNA) tea party up above our house in Cottonwood Heights.  My only frustration here was that I was supposed to go with Robin, but when she realized the tea was going to be outside, she knew that she would have to pass, since she has such allergies this time of year, and an hour outside leads to a several days migraine.  My loss of course, but I know she would have if she could have. Anyway, after an insane week, it was so lovely to just sit and visit about something I LOVE to sit and visit about.  I did forgo the movie, and ran back to let Dad off the hook.  I went to bed at 2:00 A.M., and got up at 4:00 AM for my lookout.  (Jenn, Cathie and I split the 12:00 to 6:00 night time into three watches.) 

The sale was an unbelievable success.  We just keep getting better.  Look at that crowd.  A couple of customer's theorized that it was the fact that it was printed in the National Magazine, Flea Market Style.  Maybe so, I just hope the new customers keep on keeping on.  Here I am with Cathy and Jenn in front of our flea.o.logy sign that Dad put up for us.  Nell came down to sell, and had her best sale so far.  It was super fun to have her sister Bugs watching her kids, as it gave me coverage in the family room as dealers and customers came in to use the bathroom.  Yeah Alexis.  It was fun too to have Scott, Eva and Eleanor around, I know their Grandpa adored it.  Coralee, my north side neighbor said she thought he was so cute with the grand kids (the swings are on that side) and she thought I was very lucky!  She is SOOOOO right!

Dad fixed the infant swing, and Beckie got her first shot at it.  So cute.  Beckie also cut her first tooth this week and learned to crawl the same day.  Its so fun to see her growing and becoming.

Its so hard to be a hard playing baby.  That night, after all was cleaned up and put away, other than Cathie's, who has such an amazing display off goodies (and who sells an amazing array of goodies), Dad and I headed to Salt Lake to take his Dad to dinner.  Grandpa Carlo is so kind.  He IS definitely befuddled, and can't seem to keep track of his hearing aid and batteries, making conversation back and forth impossible.  He chatters endlessly, but kindly.  I guess being a good and kind man doesn't go away when you  have Alzheimer's, I just worry that when my 'social awareness' is stripped away that I will be one of those mean and nasty old ladies ....  Guess I need to work more on my core being now.

So today, Sunday,  was a great day spiritually, but it started out with my third frustration.  Emily had taken my van up to Becca's as Becca is selling off everything.  They have rented their house in Lehi and are moving into her mother-in-law's basement.  The rent there is great and they will be able to save for another house as they make their big mortgage payment with the rent payment on the house they are currently 'upside  down' in.

Anyway, Emily forgot to give me my keys back, Dad was gone off to the ward he supervises on the high counsel, Emily and Sam had already left for church, Bruce Allison, my antique show partner still had the old blue van after using it for flea.o.logy, and church was starting in 5 minutes. YIKES ... I started walking.  Fortunately I didn't walk much of the two miles it is to our new church before Dana DeWitt drove past and gave me a ride.  I couldn't be mad at Emily though, she does SO much for me, including the fact that she did add matching at Walmart for me on Friday and got me some amazing deals in the grocery department.  Dad can't even be unhappy about it as Walmart DEFINITELY lost money on my grocery list, so thanks Em.

As I said, Church was amazing.  One of those testimony meetings where you come away in love with life and your ward family.  Denise Ekins bore her testimony, a very rare occurrence, and said she knows that Heavenly Father loves us all, and he is aware and CARES about what is important to US individually.  She said He doesn't want us to all be the same, he just wants us all to be happy.  Terri and VL's son Ben was there, such a confused young man, he comes but sits apart from his parents, and is just so angry.  Emily always talks to him, and she is so upbeat.  She used to babysit him and Ann, and has a great bond.  Bless her heart.  Later Shirley Wilson's grandson, who is living there with his wife (Emily and Sam are friends with them) got up and bore his testimony about his hobby/career racing mountain bikes.  He told the story about going to an old trail to train, one he had used growing up in St. George, only to find part of it was fenced off and had no trespassing signs.  He said, he knew the trail was fine, he had used it and was sure it wouldn't be a problem, so he lifted his fine new bike over the fence and headed off.  Before long he realized the trail had eroded and a lot of rocks were loose.  He wiped out and was worried he had broken her collar bone.  He had broken his other one previously and said that for some reason once you have broken both your body is somehow compromised, and it makes it almost impossible to be competitive in bike racing.  He laid there in the wilderness discouraged and praying.  He said the Lord 'told' him that his bone was not broken, and that he would be ready to race in his next scheduled race, five weeks away.  He got up, rode back up the trail, lifted his bike back over the fence, despite excruciating pain, and got back to his car.  He didn't see how the Lord could fulfill his promise, but he trusted.  That was five weeks ago, he continued working through the pain, training, and yesterday he finished that race and made it to the 'blocks'.  I love that story.  I know the Lord loves us, and just wants our happiness.  I know that his plan is not for his aggrandisement, its is just for our happiness.  When He says "Thou shalt not" it is so we can find happiness, instead of the frustration that comes when we don't obey.  I am so grateful for parents who taught me this.

Well, that is our week.  Kind of crazy, eh?  Hope your week was just as amazing, in the way you most appreciate.