A House Tour, Art Museum, Baby Shower and Family Dinner.

It was an intensive week for both Dad and I, as he finished up his biggest remodel ever in the store in Centerville, and I finished up my month long project getting the house ready for a tour on Saturday.   By Saturday night we were both exhausted and even our plans to go to a movie were scrapped in lieu of watching a DVD at home .... zzzzzzz  On Monday I got going on moving my craft room up from the basement to the larger guest room.  With plans for air mattresses, fold away beds and a hide a bed in the library we will be able to sleep 6 adults, and if Dad and I slip up to the attic to sleep on our future bed, we will have room for 8.  Yeah!!  But all the fetching and carrying up from the basement really wore me out.  I did it all of Monday and Tuesday, except when I went visiting teaching Tuesday evening while Dad was doing his regular temple assignment.

I tried to dovetail my regular life with getting the craft room set up and cleaning up the rest of the house, which, as you have probably all noticed, was in need of a good cleaning.  This picture made me laugh.  I did the photo wall on Thursday night of antique group pictures for my blog, and after I did the photo shoot I thought I would show the whole room.  The right side is clean and tidy for the pics, and the left side is a cluttered mess. 

Luckily for me, Emily followed through with her promise of a gift of service, polishing my silverware, that she gave me for Mother's day.  When you all ate with the shiny silverware yesterday, I am sure you appreciated it too.

I worked Wednesday and Thursday, as did Dad, taking his father to dinner on Thursday night, and then visiting with his Aunt Karen about some possible upgrades is Grandpa's care situation.  I meanwhile had a buying appointment in Springville for a very nice lady who is going into an assisted living place in St. George soon and who is selling off a few antiques.  She never married, and is just a few years older than  me.  It made me appreciate more than ever, how blessed I am to have such a wonderful husband and great kids!!

Friday was a crazy cleaning day for me.  I finished up a few decor things, and cleaned from 8:00 AM until 1:00 AM, when after waxing the kitchen floor, I sunk into a hot bubble bath. Sigh ....  I awoke at 4:00 AM after just 2 hours asleep and was so stiff I could barely move... this whole getting old thing just stinks.

But it was all worth it when 30+ people in two separate tours came to see the house.  It was so fun to see some old friends from church, and the antique mall, and even met the sister of one of our mall dealers.  When everyone was gone, I was off to work a day, and Scott was off to do another shift at the temple, as the supervisor had 'begged' him to fill in.

One fun thing for Dad at the tour was running into a woman who grew up next door to him in Cottonwood.  Her maiden name was JoAnne Lindman.   They had a great chat.  She had 9 children, so there was lots to talk about, she now lives in Santequin, small world eh?

I had my friend Wendy come in and work two hours for me so I could run to Heather Bigler's wedding shower. I hadn't realized it was an open house style, so after a half hour I had some time to kill, and spent an hour at the Springville art museum.  That was sort of deliciously serendipitous, and I saw this sculpture that was done by my cousin Debbie Avati's husband.  That was a nice surprise.  I also noticed several 'steampunk' sculptures and canvases, which was very satisfying.

On Sunday morning I got to baby sit Beckie for a few minutes while her parents were out, and Grandpa was at meeting for his 'other' ward.  I introduced her to bubbles, and that was really fun.  She ended up asleep in my arms in the library, one of my very favorite things.

 Dad and I then got to go to Pleasant Grove for Tyler Dicou's mission report.  What a wonderful young man, he served in South Korea, and it was so interesting to hear his talk.

We got home and started getting ready for having the kids come to dinner.  I had injured my shoulder in my sleep, how's that for a talent, and laid down with the hotpad for an hour.  When I got up Dad had made the icecream, cut up the watermelon and was working on getting the pork 'pulled'.  What a great guy.  I helped him  by bringing in the round top for the kitchen table, and some extra chairs, adding the leaf to the dining table and setting both tables.  Kind of funny, because it was pretty much reversed roles for us.  Above you can see that while forcing folks to see my new craft room the 'birdie house' was rediscovered by Eleanor.  We have pics just like this of Eva at the same age right after Dad built it.  So fun!!

Nell's sister Sarah is in town, so she and Alexis, who is at BYU (shown here with Eva), both came to dinner too, which made it extra fun.  It was Sarah's offer to bring some of her amazing cup cakes that gave me the idea to have homemade icecream to go with them.  Then Briahnna surprised us by bringing that yummy layered dessert that Grandma Ida used to make, (In the old days people used to call it 'better than sex dessert', we were so wild in the old days ... ) so there was not an unsatisfied sweet tooth in the house.

I took a few pics at the beginning of the party, such as this one of Becca, Titan and Aunt Darby, before succumbing to the pain in my shoulder and heading back to an rendezvous with the hot pad in my bedroom, while Dad played host extraodinaire.

And just in closing, we are all looking forward to a special event this week.  Briahnna's doctor said the baby is over 7 lbs and if she does have it this week she will be started on July 2nd.  We can hardly wait to meet our newest grandchild, and we will keep you all posted!! Love and Hugs -Mom and Dad.

Tae Kwon Do

Its the Twa Kwon Do boys from Idaho!  Britt posted this of the boys on facebook and I thought it was worth saving here. So cute!  Kai and Alex of course.

3 Sick Babies and the Best Father's Day Ever!

Yep, another full and fun week marred only by 3 one year olds taking turns having temps.  It started on Monday with my We Can group meeting at our house to start making ornaments for the Festival of Trees ...  Dad spent another week at the Centerville Fresh Market... and ran into  trouble.  When the flooring people scraped the old tile up, they found major damage to the cement floor, and when they tried to repair it, it failed to set due to water on the floor.  A week later and Dad's crew is making plans to put together strips of gondola displays (the strips of shelving he was moving last week) in odd spots, so they can move them into place when and if the floor gets done.  Frustrating!!

I of course was busy doing what I do, rehabbing, reinventing and restoring, and then blogging about it.  The pink sewing machine was formerly grey, and after a customer knocked it off and broke the fly wheel I decided to have some fun with it.

Dad went to the temple, as usual, for his shift on Tuesday.  I then worked Wednesday and Thursday, while working on the upstairs, since I have never really fixed up the bedroom since Spencer and Seth moved out, oh, lets say, 5 MONTHS ago, and we have a house tour here next Saturday for the Payson Quilter's Guild.

Thursday night Dad took his Dad to dinner as usual.  Grandpa isn't wearing his hearing aids anymore, so its a pretty quiet evening,but I think that both Dad and Grandpa enjoy it. (Well I would, Thursday is free margarita night!!)

On Friday I worked on the house more, and happily Spencer dropped by and helped me move some furniture around.  I know its not his favorite thing, so I super appreciate his help.

I met Becca and Brady at the DI (my choice) to pick up Titan, as they were headed to Park City for a romantic overnighter.  I got home in time to hook up with Dad and we ....

all went and did the Provo Historic Home tour, which we love.  We strolled about two miles around residential Provo and saw 5 houses, a couple of which are amazing. Afterwards there was a lecture on the historic Provo Tabernacle and its transition to a temple at the Provo Library, shown to the right.  Titan was the only child in a huge room of 300 people, and he was great!!  At least Becca and Brady know he's an easy kid. 

Saturday morning while Titan and I were off to garage sales via the stroller, and sticking to main street (We hit four sales)  Dad was off to run a fun run sponsored by our stake, with Davin.  Bri and Elias came along for the fun, so after the race I got this shot of Grandpa with his two one year old grandsons.

Next Dad, Titan and I were off to see Darby and Dolce running a jump course at her barn, Rose Ranch in Salt Lake.  After her course, Darby let Titan have a minute on the horse, she said that he seemed like a natural, and knew just how to hold on!!  A few slupees later (We later found out that Titan loves frozen novelties, so good choice, eh?) and we were headed south.  Dad spent a couple of hours on the Garden house, while I worked on a rehab project for a piece of furniture for my up and coming craft room.  Titan took a quick nap, and Spencer, who dropped by to do some sawing in the attic, had a chance to play with him a bit.

Then we all met at 7-peaks for our Father's Dad celebration.  Dad later said he was sure it would be poorly attended, and was thinking it would be sort of a waste with all he has to do.  As it turned out, EVERYONE who could normally be expected showed up, except for Sam, Nell and Eleanor, who was sick.  Davin and Bri and Emily got there a couple of hours early, so about the time we got there, Davin, et al, took off because Elias had a temp and was grumpy.   Since Titan had had a temp the night before, it meant that all of our adorables were under the weather for part of the week, poor babies.  Dad said he had a ball, and it was the most fun Father's day he can recall!!  So glad we did something a little different.

Darby even ran down after her horse show and got to spend an hour and a half with what was left of the gang. 

 I actually think Spencer's favorite part was playing with the babies.

Here we see the bachelor boys with their matching facial hair and in the picture below its hard to tell which of them is playing with baby Becki.  We for your info, it is actually Spencer.

Well, our fun day is over, and Becca and Brady catch a few of the evening rays before heading home ...

We were starved by the time we got to Payson, so I took Dad to dinner at Low Mexican for Father's Day.  When we got home he went to bed while I fiddled more with my new craft room, and downloaded some pictures.

Today I made a nice breakfast for Dad for father's day and gave him his gifts.  Then it was three hours at Church, with Dad by my side, per instruction from the Stake President to go to their home ward.  (He did sneak off after breakfast and before our church, to go to his assigned ward for a couple of meetings, though.  That's Dad for you, always exceeding expectations!!)

So that was our week.   Lots of fun for Dad and me!!

All Work and No Play ... for Grandpa!

Dad spent most of his week working on the Centerville Fresh Market reset this week.  If you look behind him you can see wheels attached to the row of shelving.  That is because he and a crew of about 10 men just moved that fully loaded row of shelving.  Whoa.

My week was much slower.  I took Scott and Eva home on Monday, then junked my way home, before cleaning up and hosting our FHE group here at the house.

The rest of the week for me was working, blogging, reading, and going to movies. 

Dad texted me that the Lucky One had finally come to the dollar theater, so we went on Wednesday night, that was fun.

On Friday I met Jenn and Cathie in Centerville for one of the best garage sales I have been to in years.   We then attended a church sale, and on our way to A Bed of Roses in Farmington, stopped at a garage sale that had this amazing wilderness side and back yard, even though the house was on Main Street in Farmington.  The property back on Lagoon's back wilderness so it was like being out in the woods, 50 feet from a main road with tons of traffic.  So strange.

When my friend Cathie took me back to my car (that I had left in a parking lot in Centerville before trekking to Farmington)  I realized I was parked in the lot where Dad was doing his remodel.  (That is how I got the first pic in this post.) LOL

Saturday morning, Dad was off for his regular run and I was off to a few local garage sales.  When we got  back, I hauled the fancy antique gingerbread trim out of the attic so we would know how high to make the eve on the garden house.  Dad needed help stabilizing the structure and I even got to put in some screws.  While he worked on the structure I painted the door and the gingerbread, so they would be ready to attach.  I loved the paint color that came from mixing three different cans of green paint I found in the  basement.

I also go to see Becki for a moment, when Emily was cleaning the car.  Emily was gone all week to girls camp and Dad even complained about not getting to see Becki much.  I guess we have been pretty spoiled having her so near by.

That night we found that Hunger Games had also come to the dollar movies, so we went and saw it again.  The third time for me and the second time for Dad. 

Today we had a pretty normal Sunday, other than Dad running to Centerville for a few hours for more of the remodel there.  He got home in time to do a couple of meetings with his other ward then joined us for Sunday School, where Sam did another great job teaching.

Tonight we met at Trevor and Nell's for dinner.  Trevor had his guitar out and he and Spencer played us a few tunes.

Briahnna is about done being pregnant, expecting to deliver before the end of the month.  It was also great to see Ben and how much fun he had with the grandkids.

This picture makes me laugh, Spencer and Ben are trying to put chap stick on Becki, she has other ideas.

Besides a great dinner, thanks Nell, there were bottle rockets, the water kind of course.

And the swinging of the grand kids in blankets, which is always a hit.

And lots of enjoying the nieces and nephews, as always.  Thanks everyone, it was a great get together. 



Of Princess Books, and Frogs and Funerals.

This week was pretty typical, until the weekend.  Emily came up to show me how she and 'baby girl' were dressed alike.  I love that she comes up here and shares the baby so much.  On Monday, Memorial Day, Dad, Davin and Trevor, and his oldest two, climbed up to the Y.  Dad came home exhausted, as they had run all the way down, in like 12 minutes.  His muscles hurt, seriously, for three days.  Then, he worked on my garden/green house for a while until he was totally spent. 

 He then went on to work like crazy for the next three days, he has a heavy schedule of resets right now and it is hard on him physically.

I worked on house projects and blogging, mainly, besides working on Wednesday and Thursday.   I also went to the temple on Tuesday night, so that I could attend the session in which Dad lead the prayer circle... I missed my exit on the way, and then the next one was closed, oops.  I was sure I had missed the session, but when I got to the top of the stairs, a couple of people were stopped to let the people in his session pass by, and the worker invited me to join them.  I have NEVER seen that happen.  I can only count it as the Lord watching out for me

 Early Friday morning it was off to Arizona.  Dad had read on facebook on Wednesday morning, that his friend Ilkka Lepannen has passed away late on Tuesday.  Now you have to understand that there is only one thing Dad likes more than a funeral and that is a reunion.  I told him sometimes I think, he thinks they are the same thing.  He said 'he just likes to put the fun back in funeral.' 

 The funeral was scheduled for Friday evening and he was determined to go.  It meant me cancelling a day of junking fun and lunch at a place I was looking forward to along with Cathie and Jennifer, and then also missing out on selling off my clearance stuff at the flea market at Treasures Saturday (Held just twice a year), but he is always so good to support me, I knew I really had no choice, but to return the favor.

Then Dad talked to Trevor and offered to take Scott and Eva down to see their Nana and Papa in Phoenix, which resulted in a kind invitation for us to stay with the Grows as well.  Here are  a couple of pics of the kids on our way down.  Both Scott and Eva were great travelers.   Eva and I worked on our 'Princess Books' for a couple of hours on the way down, which was evidently exhausting for her ...

This is a picture from Dad's last missionary reunion (of his mission group) taken during April Conference.  Ilkka is the blond third from the left in the middle row.  Their mission president's wife, Sister Wade is third from the left on the front row.  We sat behind her at the funeral, and afterwards, she said she knew "it was Scott that was behind me, when I heard your beautiful voice."

Tami was a wonderful hostess, even though J. Scott and I took turns being sick.  Her friend Arlene, (That's Grandma Arlene to Scott and Eva) came by with her daughter who is visiting from England.  It was very fun to visit with her about life in England.  She has lived there around 10 years.  She said that every WEEK a Christian Church building in the British Isles is sold and become a Mosque, because there is so little interest in organized religion  among the Christians in England.  Whoa.

It was fun to check out Tami's decorating.  She is super talented, (not surprisingly as Nell's mom) and I am going to do some blogging about her house.  I LOVED this bathroom.  So charming, and so interesting, that it is basically the same color as my bathroom (above)  Too Fun!!

She was also kind enough to take me junking along with her adorable daughter-in-law Heather who was there for part of the day on Saturday.  We had a lovely time, and Tami and Heather even found a great desk for J. Scott's bedroom remodel that is coming up. 

We went to church on Sunday, just sacrament meeting, and then headed home.  Unfortunately I think it was Dad's turn for the goomboo that J. Scott and I had experienced, and he was super achy and sore coming home, he even relented and let me drive a bit.

My favorite memory from the week is hearing J. Scott sing "Why are their so many songs about rainbows" in his Kermit the Frog voice (done very convincingly, I might add).  He is really good .... and since we were eating bagels at one point we all changed the words to replace "rainbows" with "bagels" ....

"Bagels are visions, but only illusions, And bagels have nothing to hide."

Thanks Eva and Scott!