A Bunch of White Things, Three Estate Sales, Two Birthdays and a Canned Ham Trailer.

 

Monday started out my week, as a work day to make up for the Wednesday I took off last week for the Shakespeare Festival.   Dad had his late day, working until 8:00, so I picked up Grandpa at Ashley's house, as she had watched him that day.  She'd had to leave for work an hour and a half before I could get there, so Andy took over for her.  It was great to see him, when I picked up Dad, and he was super helpful.  Thanks Andy and Ashley for helping out!

 

So, if you have noticed paint on my hands this week, this is why .... I have been crazy busy painting up goodies for flea.o.logy this coming Saturday.  This lot was painted on Tuesday, when Dad got home from work, before heading off to the temple, I had run to the store .... this is the text he sent me ... made me smile.

Wednesday and Thursday were work days, as usual.  I added more touches to my small stuff display on Wednesday, then painted a chair and a half for flea.o.logy on Thursday, along with regular responsibilities.  After work I got in some grocery shopping and more flea.o.logy projects.

 Thursday night I ran over to Emily's around 10 to help her with the sealing wax portion of J. Scott's Hogwarts letter.  I had found the owl at work that day, with the help of my supportive friend Nikki.

Then early Friday morning I took the owl and the letter and placed them on J. Scott's from door step, then I called Nell on her cell to tell her they were there.  Scott came out and saw them, and later said as soon as her read "Mr. S. Perkins, downstairs bedroom ... he knew what it was!  So fun.

 

I then went to one antique sale in PG before coming back to get Nell and Lu to be my junking partners for the day.

Nell and I loved this old Volkswagon station wagon and got Lu to pose with it!

 

 We went to three estate sales, and DI and made a big haul, in fact the small antique dolly that Lu is riding on was actually a dollar!

After a fun day of junking with Nell, Dad and I headed to Provo to meet up with the Heuers and Moes, as well as Jeff's folks, for a birthday dinner for Robin .... its so weird, we realized that when we became friends, the Moes were still in their twenties, the Heuers were in their early thirties and now we are all in our fifties, except Dad who is, well, into the next decade!

 Yep, we have all been friends for 22 years, how weird is that?

 Afterwards we went back to Trevor and Nell's with J. Scott birthday gift, a Hogwarts train ... Dad put it together for him, and now Trevor has great plans to incorporate it into Scott's room.  What a very cool dad!

Early Saturday morning Spencer and Sam went fishing at Payson Lakes ... as always, Sam caught his limit and so did Spencer.  They helped other less savvy fisher people to catch some fish too.  They had a great time, and Brittney cooked fish for dinner that night!  Yeah Brittney!

Our Saturday started when I ran to a couple of Payson garage sales, while Dad put the pieces back into the ceiling of the main floor bathroom, as everything had finally dried out, then he  added handles to the attic of the garden house so that adults (read that as fat grandmas) can get up into the loft more easily! 

Then he went to teach Finnish at the MTC (that our Primary was sponsoring for the kids), while I ran to AF to attend the grand opening of the pink trailer, the project of one of our flea.o.logists, who happens to be married to the Junior High School friend of Trevor's!!

Look how great it looks!

I got home in time to do still more painting, while Dad got things ready for grandpa's shower, as Emily Wright was coming for Grandpa's big event.

After the shower the three of us got in the car and headed to Orem to meet the Broughs for our bi-yearly dinner out.  As we were walking in, Grandpa said "My pants are falling off." and indeed they were almost down to his knees .... Dad took off his own belt to secure the situation, and Grandpa had a great dinner, eating more than I have seen him eat in months!  We had a nice visit with the Broughs, and an enjoyable evening all together.

Sunday, after church, Spencer and Brittney hosted us for dinner and invited Emily and Sam too.

 

 Brittney made a family recipe, a sort of sweet and sour meatballs that were delicious, even Grandpa and Cheryl ate them all gone, and Cheryl asked for seconds .... a first in the year she has lived here.  Definitely getting this recipe!!

Afterwards Dad showed off the handles he had placed in the garden house, and the latch he had added to the ladder so that no grandchildren will be harmed in the hanging out and jumping around in the garden house ever again!! 

 After dinner Dad, Grandpa and I went to the park for one of the final concerts there.  We were pleasantly surprised when Spencer and Brittney  joined us.

So that is pretty much our week.  Hope yours was lovely too!

Perkins Kids, FYI  We will be celebrating our late August Birthdays with a tall layered waffle 'cake' with strawberry jam and whipped cream at our family breakfast on Labor day .... along with watching the parade ... 9:00 A.M. should be about the right time.  See you then.

A Little Shakespeare, Some Horses, A couple of Weddings ... and Cambodian Friends!

Here am I with my book club ladies at the Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City were we spent three days and saw 5 plays ... the sign at the left is for the room below the trap door which is arranged in the front part of the audience in the theater.  Using this trap allows actors to be suddenly thrust or  'thrown up'  onto the stage ... thus the name...  Made me laugh.

We saw Peter and the Star Catcher, based on the book we had read, Peter and the Star Catchers ... its a prequel to Peter Pan ... thus the bulletin board above of James Barrie, the author of the original.

Emily sent this picture of Becky kissing a horse at the county fair, thought it was cute!

Back at work on Wednesday and Thursday, I redid this display that I am in charge of at Treasures North.

On Friday I went junking in Salt Lake with LaVern ... always fun.

That night we got to see Spencer and Brittney, as they are back!! They spent their first night in the apartment that night ... its going to be so fun to see them sometimes.

Sam and Emily went to the Evening part of their ward campout.  Becky got to ride this cute donkey, and loved it.  Definitely her papa's daughter.

Our very own version of the duck dynasty brothers.

Saturday Ashley came down to spend the day.  We loved having her.  She spent some time playing hymns on the piano, which delighted Grandpa.  She also watched Grandpa, while Dad and I ran up to Seth's wedding reception. 

Since Seth (Spencer's best friend from High School, etc) and Katie, Emily's bestie were both getting married that day, and since they had both lived with us for a short time, we got comparing notes, and realized that over the years we have had 20 different, non immediate family members who have done so ... whoa!

I ran off to Shanna Weight's baby shower that afternoon.  She is adopting.  The other three ladies are ward members.

Emily dropped by to visit Ashley before heading to Katie's reception set up ... though she had been helping all day with various wedding related tasks.

Ashley, Emily and Becca were all at Katie's reception, which is always fun!

 

Here are some pics of family dinner and Ashley's birthday party Sunday evening.

Spencer and Brittney brought gifts from Cambodia ...

And Eva seems to be  back to normal ... so good to see her happy and just regular!!  She is wearing a fanny pack with a pump to inject big antibiotics, through her picc line every 6 hours.  She gets the pack off for an hour a day, so her parents can flush the lines.

Happy Birthday Ashley, and welcome home, Eva, Spencer and Brittney, all back from adventures this week!

Update on Eva

Here is Trevor's Blog post about Eva's latest update ....

 

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Picc Line and Biopsy

I'm actually writing this blog post (using Dragon Dictation App) as I drive back to primary children's for the second time today.  After going to work this morning, driving back up at lunch for Yaya's procedure, going to work this evening and then going home and driving back up tonight I'm  just passing 350 miles that I've driven since Friday. I'm exhausted but I'm grateful that things seem to be looking up.  Here's a brief update for today: the doctors came by last night/this morning and told us they were going to be installing A picc line and also biopsying a piece of liver. In order for the picc line to be installed Eva needed to be sedated.  After she was sedated they took a needle and inserted it into her liver In order get some sample pieces of her liver spot so they could better understand what it was.

This Illustrates the Placement of a Picc Line

For those who don't know (which I did not prior) what a picc line is it like a long hose that goes from the upper part of her arm and inside across the shoulder and then down to the chest.  Her antibiotics are going to be injected at the port on the picc line.  Before were able to go home Nellie and I need to be trained on how to clean up and maintain it.  As for the antibiotics it looks like she's going to have them for 14 to 28 days.  They will need to be administered every six hours which means with school starting that she won't be able to attend a full day of school as Nellie will have to pull her out of school early to give her her medicine which takes about a half an hour to administer.  It looks like a long road ahead but hopefully this is a solution that allows Eva to get better!

Yaya's Picc Line in Place

Looking back at Friday morning when I first took her to InstaCare I felt kind of foolish when the first doctor gave me the impression that I was an over-reactive parent.  Every step we took to escalate the care I second guessed what we were doing.  I'm not happy that Eva is sick, but I'm happy we listened to her when she told us how cruddy she felt.

Yaya and Mom Prior to Her Procedure

 We are hoping again that we get to go home tomorrow. If we do, it will feel like the toughest part is over. We are again so grateful for all the support we have received. So many have been so kind to our little family in ways we can never repay!  

Our Bathroom Door at PCMC with Artwork by Eva and Cards From Well Wishers