Congrats to Brit, Meeting Eszie and an Amazing General Conference.

On Monday, the last day of March, it was time to pay the piper ... in order to get days off for the Texas trip, I had to trade days, so that meant working on Monday the 30th ....  though I did take pics before work, and took my ipad to work so I could do my pollyanna blog post there. Trip hangover on top of the unusual work day left me with a headache, so I was thrilled to see that my best boy had made dinner when I got home!!  My hero once more!

Feeling better on Tuesday, I got up and walked with Ginny early, before heading to Salt Lake for some junking  and meeting up with Arlene at the Jordan River temple for our monthly session.  This time made four, but it feels like we've been doing it forever.

Dinner at Zupa's for more Chicken Enchilada Chili, was a treat, then we parted ways, and I did more junking before heading home.  Of course Dad was at the Provo temple fulfilling his responsibilities there.

 On Wednesday morning I took pics of this shelf I had found at the Vintage Whites Market and posted them on my Reclaimologist FB page, as Wednesdays are our mandatory posting day.

Then I redid the window display in the kitchen, taking down my Valentines goodies 6 weeks after Valentines!  The pictures were then used in my Pollyanna blog post for the day.

 I love this black and white sign I found for like $6 at Seagull Books.  The sentiment is so true!  ... and hanging it reminded me that I had passed up on little orange polka dot dessert plates the day I bought it ....

Thursday was super busy ... it started with a day at work, where these girls came in and bought these wedding boots that had belonged to the mother's grandmother.  Another dealer had bought them at a local yard sale before the lady's aunt moved out of state!  The mother's grandfather's name was written repeatedly on the bottom of both shoes ... like when you write the name of the guy you like in the margin of your paper when you are taking notes, right?!

 Then Trevor and Nell and Elle dropped by to pick up an old map to use for a photo shoot she was doing for Spencer's new line of wooden eyeglasses  later in the week ....

 and Trevor told me about the cool ipod dock he had seen in the Restoration Hardware Catalogue that used an antique horn from a record player and we closed a deal on the repro player I have had in the front hall, which no longer functions, due to Grandpa Carlo's tweeking ... sweet, and had become a dust catcher!!

 After work that night, Ginny stopped and got me and we headed to our book club meeting for the ward where we discussed The Giver ..

When I got home Dad said Trevor was on his way to pick up the tree trunks ... when Trevor said he planned to fit all three trunks in the back of the old van, I thought he was crazy ...

 But these three amazing men did just that .... while Brittney and I stood by in awe and amazement.

 On Friday, we heard that Brittney had been chosen to represent her college as valedictorian at graduation.  Because there are 8 colleges graduating that day, they will do a drawing for the two talks and two prayers among the eight of them.  We are so proud that she has been chosen for this honor.  She still, never ceases to amaze us.

Spencer borrowed Dad's car, and since Dad was using my van to do roofing with Ben in Orem that day, I got to ride to Orem to drop Spencer off at school, where Brittney would pick him up later, that is when I heard the awesome news about her graduation honors.

Next I headed to Seagull books where I bought 24 little orange plates .... I know they will be perfect at Halloween time with my black and white checked plates, and since I do a lot of entertaining that time of year, it seemed like a no brainer!!  A quick stop at the DI in AF, and it was time for the big event ...

 meeting Eszie, Belinda's third daughter, who, with two of her sisters, lived with us for 6 months around the time we moved to Payson.  Her name was Esperanza then, and we called her Essie, the name Eszie was an inventioin of her adoptive parents who adopted her at age 5, just 6 months after our time with her.  In talking to the case worker, shown above back left, we were saddened to hear that the adoptions of all three girls, in separate adoptive homes,  Annie, Essie and Jamie, had been disrupted in their early teens, and they had lived in foster care after that ...  The case worker contacted me just before I headed to Texas, telling me that Essie, at almost 19, wants extended family, and hoped we could provided that for her, thus the meeting last Friday.

Here she is ... we hope to introduce her to other family members soon, and will keep you all posted.

On Saturday and all his boys along with Briahnna and Becca got a ton done on  reshingling the roof of the Orem house.

I watched the first session of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints conference with Cheryl, even taking notes.  Then I left for Salt Lake, which meant listening to the second session of conference on the radio.

There I met up with the Utah Vintage Yard Sale group at Pirate O's in Draper, many of whom I had never met.  This is a subset of those attending, all peeps who have done flea.o.logy.  Christine, the leader of the group, is the one giving me bunny ears.  It was a great meet and greet/reunion, and the map I am holding is one that pictures 12 local vintage flea markets and shops, including flea.o.logy.

Of course I did some junking while in the big city before heading home.  We had planned to do a girls night during the Priesthood session at Briahnna's with dinner and a movie, but with many conflicts, it just didn't happen. :-( Maybe next time!

On Sunday, Dad was off to southern Utah to move some gondolas, while I watched more conference with Cheryl.  He got home with just a half hour to go on the first session, and joined us.  

Spencer and Brittney came up, which I love, and visited with us between sessions.  Then we watched the afternoon session, with more note taking for me, a challenge from our Relief Society President, Ginny.  I had tears running down my face at times, the effect, I think, of the more concentrated effort of watching and taking notes. It was just such an amazing conference.

I was particularly touched by Jean Stevens' talk. She's a counselor in the General Primary Presidency, and lives in our Salt Lake Stake.  She told of years ago driving past a twelve year old boy in the evening and being prompted to stop and help him.  Fearing she would just scare him by stopping after dark she continued, only to be told again to go back and offer help.  She did, and found that he had missed his bus at the end of the day and was walking home, and had been walking for well over an hour, and was scared and tired.  He had just gone behind a pile of gravel and had prayed for help.  She gave his name as Derrick Nance, and I figured he had been walking along Wasatch Drive, the way a child in the Granite District from Jordan District busing program route a child attending Wasatch Junior would have walked.  Brittany did that program too, though I am not sure she ever needed to walk home.  It made the story very real for me, and even writing about it now brings tears to my eyes.  Brittany did you know this young man?

BTW while checking on what Jean's calling is, I found that she was the first woman to ever give a prayer in General Conference, how cool is that?

Anyway, afterwards Dad put in two screws to attach the new sign I had made for our garden cottage.  The old one had faded so badly it was unreadable.

We ended the day watching a video of Dad's choosing, The Scarlet Pimpernel with Jane Seymour, which is always lovely. ... and thus in this mudain way we ended a week to remember, so excited for Brittney and Spencer, and I feel we are embarking on a new era with meeting Eszie!