Monday, September 30, 2013

Doll Houses and Cutting Trees and More!

 So, on Monday I walked out to go walking with LaVern and noted that the Turkey Vultures had let loose during a fly over ... I just hoped it wasn't an omen for the week.

 I did spent a half hour at the dentist before doing some shopping that day, picking up papers and details for the dollhouse I was working on for the Festival later in the week.

I also found a minky throw for Cheryl's belated birthday celebration that night ... Dad brought home the cake!!

I also got some done on the doll house that night, but spent all of Tuesday from about 9:00 A.M., until 10:00 that night, papering, putting down flooring, shingling and bricking it.

Dad brought Grandpa home in the midst of the of the doll house marathon, before going off to the temple himself, so I did have to take a break and make dinner for Grandpa and Cheryl, which is a good thing when one is so uber focused.

On Wednesday and Thursday I finished the doll house at work, completing the furnishings with a few purchases at the antique mall.

 I set it up Thursday after work at the festival site, in the Provo Library.  To the right is a detail of one room showing a rifle on a plaque I had for sale at the antique mall for 25c, a picture I printed off of Graphics Fairy and framed with craft sticks that I painted black, a table and harp donated by another gal in We Can. Also, scrapbook paper cut to fit by yet another member of We Can.  The flooring is actually doll house flooring I got at Hobby Lobby on Monday.  I made the couch at work, out of card board, paper towels for stuffing, and fabric.  The rug is an antique hot pad that I bought at the mall Thursday as well.

BTW, when I got home from work on Wednesday, Allen Ewell, our friendly neighborhood electrician, was helping Dad find the problem, as our power on the main floor had gone out.  They spent about an hour with no luck.

 On Friday I picked up Eva after school, and met up with my friend Ginny and her granddaughter, Afton, for a grandma date at the Dollhouse festival. 


The Doll House Festival benefits children who have been abused, and the money raised helps pay for therapy to help them move on with their lives.  Above are about half of the clothes I bought at the Persnickety Outlet that was set up to raise money for the cause.  I found something sweet for all my granddaughters, but Kim, who is too big for their sizes, even Adilyn's unborn baby sister got something.
 
Afterwards I picked up Grandpa at Ashley and Andy's.  Andy had finished up watching him, which we always appreciate! 

Dad had been helping Davin and Bri move to their new house in Spanish Fork when we lost the fuel pump on the old blue van.... Davin towed Dad (in the 15 seater van) home from Spanish Fork with the Deuce, what a site that must have been. 
 
I hurried home so Dad could go to the BYU game, but first we had to pick up my van that was having the coolant leak fixed, to the tune of $850, ouch.  Dad got there at half time and had to sit alone as the neither of the recipients of seats given away by Trevor or Davin showed up!
 
But Dad was happy that he got to go down the bleachers and visit with Brittney's parents who had also come to the game while they were in town for a quick trip from their home in Wyoming!

On Saturday Dad worked over at Payson Cottage some more, while I went to the Doll House Festival with a few of the We Can ladies ... then we had lunch at Brick Oven ... though not one of us had pizza, kind of funny.


 When I got home, Ben showed up ready to work on taking down the 3/4s dead catalpa trees.  He spent four hours at it, while Dad, who had come home from working at Payson Cottage, to meet Allen Ewell, our electrician again,  was wandering around looking at light and plug boxes all over the house with him. Allen was there for at least two hours, if not more, and even had another electrician neighbor come over to consult.  Now Dad is now trying to figure out how to rewire it all .... argggg.
 So I was out with Ben, most of the time, just in case something happened, and just to keep myself busy, I put together this old urn and pumpkins that I had bought for just this purpose while shopping.

 Ben and Dad pulled and pulled, then Allen came out of the house, and just as he placed a hand on the rope, the tree came down ... whoa, mighty electrician! By then it was almost 8:00 P.M. ... and it was time to feed Grandpa Carlo and head him up to bed.

Sunday after attending our regular meetings in the morning we got to go and see Eva and Scott in their Primary Program ... Eva and Elle both wore the skirts I had gotten them at the doll house festival, which was sort of fun.



 Scott and Eva both had their parts memorized perfectly and at least Scott did a great job singing.  We were on the far side from where Eva sat, so we couldn't see her during the songs. :-( ...

Next year we will have three more Primary aged grandchildren, though Scott will have moved on to Mutual, so hard to believe.  But we should be able to see Titan, Eleanor and Elias being adorable up on the stand too!  Something to look forward to!
 
 We headed home and got things ready for family dinner that night.  Becca came early to visit, which we always love, and Reagan got her Persnickety skirt, she seems to approve of the brand on the tag, don't you think ...
 And here we all are eating our Navajo tacos ... yum


 
... and I love the fascination the 'three year olds' have with the garden house,  above are Elias and Eleanor.  :-)

Spencer and Brittney had spent the day in Bountiful at her grandmother's to take advantage of her parents being in town before they headed home, so we just saw them at the end of the family dinner.  They came up after everyone had left and visited for a bit, which we always love ... thanks you guys!!

Sunday, September 22, 2013

Good Bye Emily and Sam and minor events


 This was a week to recover from a busy week last week.  I worked Monday, so I could have Wednesday off, and brought home these two old boxes to house skeletons and to use my 'coffin labels' on, in decorating my dining room mantel.

We discovered some art work left by some adorable 3 year olds on our monitor that day too ... some hairspray took it right off, but then Dad was sad, as he had wanted to leave it on as a reminder of our cute little grandkids.

 Tuesday evening, while Dad was at the temple, I went over to 'help' Emily and Sam in the loading of their container.  As it turned out, I took Becki for a walk in the stroller that lasted two and a half hours.  It made me sort of sad, because I kept thinking that in a year, she won't even know who I am ... of course Emily reminded me that we would face time ...

To the right Emily and Sam double team Liam to get his diaper changed!

 On Wednesday I went to the Haunted Star Mill event I had taken the day off to enjoy.  LaVern came with me, and we heard stories of ghost spotted at the Mill, as well as a lot of history of the mill that was fun.

That afternoon I went to Emily's to visit, but her friend Katie was there helping to touch up paint, and I fell asleep on the couch.  Emily took a picture of me sleeping that could be used as blackmail some time ... LOL

That night Dad and I went over to visit with them for the last time ... as they were leaving very early the next morning.





 


 Good bye dear daughter, our prayers and hearts have gone with you.

When I got home, I hurried and put these three Halloween décor items I had made on Tuesday on my Reclaimologists Instagram page, and they sold within minutes ... and then I made arrangements for pick up ... I am loving this group!!

Then I worked Thursday and did more work on my new whites booth ... which of course I love.  Then the gal that bought the Halloween décor stuff came in and gave me $60 for the three of them ... good times

I stopped on the way home and bought groceries for the Down Abbey Tea Party I was hosting in Jenn Walker's honor the next day.


 Not everyone dressed up, but look what awesome looking service they all received!!  Don't I have the best and most supportive husband ever?  Yes, I think so too, and thanks to Becca for coming and serving us all!!
 



 Above are Robin, Barb and Ann, to the right are Michelle Vercimak, Jenn Walker and Michelle's mother Doreen.  Michelle was up from Arizona to do a triathlon at Thanksgiving point ... she has lost 150 pounds over the last couple of years, pretty amazing, eh?

Chelsea, Jenn's daughter with whom Becca is friends, was there with her week old baby, whom Jennifer delivered last week ... the joys of having a nurse mid-wife for a mom!
 
 
Then on Saturday, while Dad and Spencer were wrestling the tub out of the upstairs bathroom at Payson Cottage, I was off to yet another fall event, the Fallow Field Farm show that I actually sold at last year.  Ann, good sport that she is, came along for the fun, and we are shown here with one of my favorite flea.o.logy venders.

That evening though, Dad got to go the the BYU game, while I stayed home and watched Grandpa.


Today, Sunday, Dad got to sing in our tiny ward choir while I sat with Spencer and Brittney.  Then half way through Sunday School they all left so that Brittney could speak with Dad for his High Counsel assignment.  I wanted to go too, but had agreed to help in Relief Society.  When we all got home Brittney told me about her talk, and honestly, it sounded amazing.

After they went downstairs, and Dad headed off to his next block of meetings I worked on this blog post for about an hour before laying down with a book ... for a few minutes .... that turned into two hours,  zzzzzzzzzzzz, and from which I was awakened by a policewomen at the door .... ooops.

"Yes, we do have an elderly gentleman who lives here ".... grandpa had taken a walk in his socks, fortunately Jill Wilson's renter had seen him and had called the police, then followed him to up by Doug Lamb's house, of course Doug had seen Grandpa at church and knew who he was ...

Well, we did manage to keep him home with no long solo walks for 13 months, so that's pretty good, right?

Spencer and Brittney made us dinner, so when Dad got home from doing Inventory in Spanish Fork we all had a lovely dinner of the amazing veggie nachos that we had had at Spencer and Brit's groom's dinner.  Very yummy, and we had a great visit as well.

So now that we have had a week, that turned out to be no less calm than the week before, I guess we can see how this coming week rounds out ... it might be restful, right?

Friday, September 20, 2013

Celebrating 4 birthdays, and our Last Family Dinner with the Talleys

 
Last week was awesome, full of friends, family and fun ... above, on Monday the 9th, I hosted our We Can group... we had 13 people who came, our largest turnout ever ... we worked on making Christmas ornaments for our tree for Festival of Trees, then had our pot luck lunch.  Yummy.
 
That night Dad and I went to Taylors for our FHE group.

 On Tuesday I drove to Kaysville, with the couch in the van, to pick up the chairs my friend Arlene has reupholstered, and then dropped the couch with her for the same purpose.  Then we went to lunch and talked about old times.
 
My book club ladies came by the house to pick me up that night and we went and saw Austenland together, as we had read the book together a couple of years ago!

 On Wednesday I worked hard to put together a new booth.  All of the unrented booths are getting rented, and since I had some stuff in those unrented booths, and lots of left overs from flea.o.logy, I thought I better.

Thursday was more of the same, and then that night Dad and I drove up to Highland as Jake was opening his call. As you may note in the picture, he is going to Canada, and his friend just happened to be wearing a 'Canada' shirt ... if you can't read the caption it says, "Canadian Fast Food"
 
Afterwards we ran over to Maui Chill for some cool yogurt goodness!




 Dad took the day off on Friday, and made the climb ... doesn't he look like Samuel the Lamanite in the top picture?  Anyway, he found a huge strip of graveled tar paper missing,  no wonder that room's been leaking.  oops.


Fortunately, Coralee, had a strip of the material, she hauled over in her wheel barrow ... it was just enough and she wouldn't let us pay her ... and ... voila .... no leak.

That night Dad and I met the Heuers and Moes for dinner in Orem, then we attended the play at the Hale Center Theater together.  Good times, as always, were had by all!



 Saturday, Dad got up early to run, while I helped Emily set up the yard sale that we were doing to help raise funds to help pay for Eva's little vacation at Primary's.

When he got home, showered and packed we headed south to St. George and Overton, where he was overseeing inventories.  He dropped me at DI in St. George, then drove the hour to Overton, while I shopped beyond my hearts content.  Found some goodies, of course, before he picked me up 5 hours later.  We went and saw Austenland again, then had dinner at the Golden Corral. 

We spent the night at a hotel with a Mormon church next door, which was perfect as Dad left early to do his inventory, while I slept in, got ready for church, had breakfast at the hotel before going to sacrament meeting next door.  Dad joined me about halfway through the meeting, then we headed home.
 As you can see it was family dinner day, and Janelle and Trevor hosted a soup night, which was a super good idea, and everything was yummy.  We also celebrated four birthdays, all grandchildren, and all occurring within a week of each other.  Kai on the 8th, Alex on the 11th, Elias on the 14th and Becki on the 15th.  How fun is that.



Above is Scott holding a poster he used to win the Historian Position in the 6th grade.  Pretty cute, eh?

 Since it was Emily and Sam's last family dinner for a long, long time, and since Britt and Ashley were there too, I found myself close to tears ... I just savored the time with so many of my beloved children so close. 



 We had a small intro to guitar class ... and also got to hear Trevor and Spencer playing the guitar a bit, which is always fun.


One last picture of the bearded brethren before Sam heads south ... oh, and a memorable picture of Becca, aka tutu head!!