Gardens and Parties and Hoes ... Oh My!

 As usual my week started with a walk with LaVern in Genola ... we saw some alfalfa along the road and picked it for LaVern's lamb ... then a neighbor came out of his house and gave us each a nice cold apple ... I thought it looked sort of funny to walk along eating an apple and carrying an armload of alfalfa ... even if our ancestors are responsible for the alfalfa grown here in Utah!

(My Great Grandfather Clark, lived on 13th East in Salt Lake City, and had brought Alfalfa seeds (then called Lucerne) with him from England, I think.  He had fields around his house growing it for feed, and as new emigrants drove out of emigration canyon by his home in their wagons in the 1850's, they asked about the purple flowering plants, and he sold them some of the new fangled seeds!!)

 Here's little lambykins munching on our hand carried breakfast.

Dad's car was having issues, so after walking, I picked him up in Provo after dropping his car. Then I drove him to Salt Lake to work.  I spent an hour at the Sugar House DI, then hurried south to meet up with ...

 Robin and Kim, as Jenn Walker was in town.  We always love seeing her, and talking about old times in the Geneva Heights 7th ward is nothing short of lovely.

After lunch I checked out this sweet shop that my friend Laurie had told me about a couple of weeks ago.  I was charmed.

 I absolutely loved this pink dresser, with the striped drawers, and since I have a couple of dressers to do for flea.o.logy ...

 Then I did some more junking at the 45th DI were I saw this plate.  At first I wanted to buy it and send it to Emily, then I thought a picture would be just as good, don't you think?  Afterwards I picked up Dad and we headed home.

On Tuesday I did some work on my Mom's bio, some laundry, and cleaned the bathroom,  before making this

 cool ribbon flag to hang on my front door, and to provide fodder for my blog post for the next day.  Dad came home early and had me drive him to get his car in Provo.  (He had driven Spencer's car to work that day)  His car just needed a small part, not a new transmission, as he had worried.  Dodged the bullet again.  Then he was off to the temple for his regular shift!

 When I walked with Ginny on Wednesday we stopped and saw her garden.  Isn't it beautiful!?

 Then it was off to work ... Emily called me and told me that Becki was asking about me again, so I took this picture of me 'kissing' and sent it to her.  Emily said she actually kissed the phone.  Its almost too painfully sweet.

The when I got home from work, I was greeted by the smell of spaghetti.  Dad had made dinner for me!  Isn't he just adorable!  I loved it.  Then when I went upstairs, I found a skinny hoe on my side of the bed ...  hmmm.

I had been complaining that I couldn't find my stirrup hoe, and my garden is blooming weeds.  Don't I have the sweetest husband in the world!!

Maybe now I can make my garden pretty like Ginny's.

 .... and speaking of gardens this is what remains of the mini garden I did three years ago.    I decided it was time to clean it up, so before work on Thursday ....

 I redid the garden in faux materials.  I even spray painted the little bonsai tree ... I was rather pleased with that, and I got more fodder for my pollyanna blog, in this case, the Friday posting.

After work on Thursday I ate dinner alone, as Dad was still at work.  Then I headed to book club in Elk Ridge, which was lovely, as always.

But before bed, I used the bits and pieces of old glassware I had gathered at home and work to make a garden whimsy.  I glued these together in sections that night.

 Then on Friday I took them outside and glued the sections together to complete my bird themed garden totem and bird feeder.

 I also weeded the garden, cleaned out the van, did some house work, and did my blog post for the day, before Dad got home and I made dinner.  

 We finished up the day by watching Persuasion ... which, of course, is always a good time.

 On Saturday Dad wore himself out with an 8 mile run, getting ready for his half marathon next week with Davin and Trevor, then he just seemed to want to lay around ...

 Of course, what he is really doing here is taking this old organ base apart to make it into a desk for me to sell at fleaology in two weeks.

I was also busy doing projects, like painting this black suit case ... I thought my balancing method of supporting it while it dried was pretty clever.

Dad took off to go to a father-son BBQ at the care center ...  He had found Dad hearing aids at his house, while cleaning up, and took them for him to use.

I took a break too, to run up to Elk Ridge  as they were having their city days, and had invited several of my flea.o.logy dealers to come sell at the fair.  I thought I should show them some support since they were so close.  My friend Denise, of Two Ole Crows did the mason jars, how cute are they?

That night, after a day of projects and painting, Dad and I freshened up and went to see Maleficent with the Kews, with Chinese food afterwards.  Steve really hated the movie, and Terri didn't like it much.  But they tend to be much more sophisticated in their tastes than Dad and me. We both enjoyed it, both times we saw it despite seeing it with naysayers both times.

On Sunday, Brittney came up early and was practicing to sing at the nursing home branch.  Dad was speaking in the branch as the High Councilman and Spencer went along too, so I got to sit alone in our ward, but that's OK, I like sitting with sisters who usually sit alone.


That afternoon I did my visiting teaching on the way home, then I got started on this blog post, then ended up taking a nice little nap with Dad ... I love Sunday naps, but I always have trouble getting awake afterwards.  I this case we had to wake up, because we took Spencer and Brittney ...

 and headed up to Trevor and Nell's for family dinner, and general fun night.

 Emily called and face timed partway through, and it was fun to see Becki and William ...  You can tell how much Dad loves it.  You can also see that Dad had me cut his hair ... for the first time in several, maybe five years.  He's been going to a barber in Salt Lake, because he wanted to help him out, but with our over runs on the new roof, dormers and rain gutters, he thinking more frugally.  Good for him!!

 Brittney, who has always thought it was weird that Spencer can bend his toes up like, this noticed that Davin's did the same thing ... so when Trevor got home from his fireside they had him demonstrate his elf toes as well.  Turns out both Dad and Briahnna have this skill as well.  Who knew!

Of course it was lovely snuggling babies, and laughing and teasing.  

New Window, Italian Food Twice and a Hoarder's Estate Sale!

 On Monday Dad was off to work, and I ran Scott, Eva and Eleanor to Davin and Bri's to be watched, before heading to a rare Monday work day.  Since it was our every other Monday for an Eszie date, Dad picked her up, then they stopped and got lunch before meeting Spencer, Brit and me at the antique mall for lunch.  Eszie is having fun meeting family members, and we are having fun getting to know her better.

On Tuesday Dad and I met with our old Salt Lake ward lunch bunch at a nice Italian place we like for lunch.  It was fun to visit and renew old friendships.  Afterwards, Dad went back to the office, and I did some junking.  It was raining like mad, so the roofers had not worked that day ....

... but when I got home, the sky was so pretty, sort of apologetic for the dark and gloom day, don't you think?

 On Wednesday, I was home, because I had traded with another dealer, so they could be off Monday.  It was the day that the construction guys cut into the roof .....

 and built the second dormer.  I did some housework including laundry and spent a couple of hours in the garden.

Dad got home early and just in time, because a Payson building inspector noticed our work while driving by and wanted to fine us for not getting a permit for building a garage.  Our contractor went the rounds with him, and when Dad got home he went over to the city and explained that the garage structure had been there for 40 years, and that we put the garage doors and front plywood on 2 years ago. He saw all the construction and ladders and thought the garage is what we were building, since we have yet to stucco it.  He was a bit embarrassed, I think, and made Dad get a permit for doing the roof instead, really?  We aren't adding any square footage, oh, and he is insisting on a structural engineer to make sure the dormer windows don't compromise the structure.  ah well.

 That night we invited Spencer to come up for dinner, as Brittney was at girl's camp all week.  That was fun.

 I worked on Thursday, but Spencer and Dad came and picked me up after work to go to Rylie Hien's wedding reception in the Willow Creek area in Salt Lake.

 Dad ran into Mark Steven's a former Stake President in Salt Lake, and the man who played both Little Abner and  Harold Hill in stake performances that Dad worked in, back in the olden days.

 Here we are with Floyd and Janell with whom Dad attended high school.  They were in our Salt Lake ward when we moved there in 1977 and still live there. 

 It was also fun for Spencer to run into Travis Harley, his best friend from our time in the ward there.  They both worked at Macey's back in their golden days of youth!

After the reception we all went to LaCocina for dinner and free virgin margaritas!!  Dad used to take grandpa here for their weekly dinner dates, but its been a while.

The next morning I was in line for the much touted Hoarder's sale in Sugar House.  This man died in his 80's but had sat at the Sugar House DI every day for the previous 40 years, bring home his finds and packing them in boxes, which literally filled his house.  They have been working on the house for 6 month. The boxes were stacked 7 feet high in every room, with just walk ways in between.  He also had a full basement and several out buildings filled with stuff, as well as metal and stone stuff filling his back yard. The estate company hauled out 12 of the big long dumpsters full, and at least that much in loads to DI.  

 The man was said to be in possession of 1,000 light fixtures, by count.  The estate company filled several storage units to even be able to set up for the sale.  The sale will go every day from June 20th until July 4th.  Whoa.

 After that sale I headed to Bountiful to support one of our flea.o.logy dealers in a sale she was doing.  This cute stone sink is part of Vicki's garden decor ... I thought it was charming.  I also went to the estate sale for an antique store owner there.

 I got home in time for Dad and me to head back north to Spanish to take care of some cute munchkins we know there.  Davin and Bri had gone to see one of her brothers perform in Provo.  It was McKenna's first time to be left.

 The next morning I headed out garaging again, meeting my friend Wendy at Jenn's vintage sale in Orem.  Eva was there too, keeping an eye on her mom's goody pile.  I love the doll she is holding, Nell crocheted it for her, such a talented mom Eva has!!

 Then when Wendy and I were at another sale, the home owner showed us this milk door.  This is the outside view.  It is big enough to hold one quart of milk.  The dial on the back is set to let the milk man know when to leave milk.  How fun is that?  Then the inside door is opened for the homeowner to retrieve their milk.  I had never even heard of this before.

Then, of course, I took Wendy to the hoarders sale for fun and entertainment.  We both found goodies before hitting a couple more sale and finishing up with lunch at the Old Spaghetti Factory, which we both like.

When I got home, Dad had installed the new dark bronze window in the addition, and then had painted the trim black.  It looks awesome!!  The roofers finished the roof and rain gutters on the main house.  Now they need to finish the the dormers and install the windows in them.

Today Dad was off to an early inventory in southern Utah, and I had my lesson.  Dad's cousin Gerry was there, as her granddaughter had been baptized by the missionaries and was being confirmed!!  (Uncle Blaine's daughter) Gerry's daughter and granddaughter don't live in the ward, but chose our ward for the baptism and the confirmation that was in our Sacrament Meeting today.  The family is being sealed next week, which is very exciting.  Gerry seemed very supportive, though their family hasn't ever been active.  It was nice I recognized her and could chat a bit with her, since Dad wasn't there.

In the evening Dad was off to another inventory, this time in PG.  Unfortunately he lost his transmission again.  This will make our fourth time if we replace it again.  Fortunately two of them have been under warranty.  Not sure what we are going to do, but alas, it should be interesting.

So that was our week.  A little bit of everything!  Old friends, reunions, remodeling and grand kids, all the things that make life great!!