Sunday, June 26, 2016

Supporting Friends, Neighbors and Family

Such a great week!  We're enjoying the summer weather and our new air conditioner!! 
On Monday Dad ran to St.George and I blogged and read. In the evening we had our first Skyped Finnish language tutoring session as you can see by Dad's FB post. 
On Tuesday I worked. I tried to get some of the flea market stuff out of the van and priced ... Trevor needs the van for scout camp next week, so this was a focus this week. 

Had fun putting together this platter stack at work.  
And this rusty goodness display. 

Dad ran off to the temple before I got home, but adding grocery shopping to a day at work meant one of those rare days when he came home to find me asleep at 9:30. Hmmmm 
Brittany was doing bigger things that day. She had come down to help Edie run the sales concessions as the Dalai Lama came to town.  
Edie got some Grandkid time, but not me 😕 since I missed seeing Britt last time too I was a sad grandma. 
On Wednesday morning I scrambled like mad to get goodies done for my bookclub tea the next day... Then met Dad and we signed papers for our trust and LLC ... This is our lawyer. 
In town I did some junking. Do you need a toilet tank top?  Check out Habitate for Humanity ... 
Or if a taxidermied deer is what you need DI in AF can help... 

That night Dad uninstalled the swamp cooler and then reinstalled it at a neighbors' whose roof top unit had gone out!!  

Our next door neighbor came to help when he saw Dad, Spencer, Brittney and me getting ready to take down the awkward unit. He told us he's a handy man and we found out he used to be a full time welder!!  Yeah. It looks like we'll have our iron fencing around the balcony soon!!  

As Dad was finishing up with the Swamp cooler Steve Kew called saying he needed to borrow jumper cables. Dad ran home and got the charger and headed over there. What a good guy I married!! 
On Thursday morning I did more goody making after a walk with Ginny. 

Then it was off to work where Wendy came and brought me Cafe Rio as the final event of my 5 week Birthday celebration!!  She's the one who got me hooked on CR so it seems appropriate!! 
She brought me goodies left from the sale she had while we were on our cruise, like these old flags... 
And this triangular tin ceiling piece!! 
A couple of the flags found new homes before I could even get them in a display. Vickie and Annette are sisters AND fellow dealers at Treasures!! 
What a treat I had when we got home. These cute girls and Titan and Madison had stopped by as Becca was dropping off a house key to new home owners in Santaquin. Lucky us. 
Then I set out all the food I'd been making and added the chintz tea China I'd been collecting for such an event for years!! It was my first chintz tea party!  Yeah!! 
At 8:00 I added my book club ladies to the mix and we had a lively Austen Tea Party. We'd read Austen's Persuasion and had a great discussion.  
In other news, as posted on Facebook, Ashley  found out that Zach is tall enough to stand in their pool now!!  
On Friday I crashed, recovering from my tea party prep. I slept in and finished reading Persuasion for my probable third or fourth time. 

That night we were off to Jared and Jordan's wedding reception in the Harvard-Yale area of Salt Lake.   
Here I am with Clark and Bruce. 
Here's Jason, Brooke, Addison, Bruce, Clark, Tommy, Jo and Clark.  Addison and Tommy belong to Jill who had a conflict. 

I loved hearing the story that when Tommy was little, because they attended the ward adjoining President Monson's ward, President Monson's  would occasionally attend their ward (same building different meeting times). Once he patted Tommy on the head and asked his dad, John (Bishop Bergstedt) what his name was. When told he said "good name!" As they got to this part of the story, Tommy (now about four) reached up and patted his own head... It was pretty cute.   
Here I am with Kristin, Ryan, Samantha and Lauren. 
Andrew, Katherine, Matt, Natalie, John, Phil, Ryan and Clay ... All Larsens 
The next morning we drove  to SLC again and found ourselves at the beautiful Sugar House ward chapel for the wedding breakfast. 
The details are delightful. 

This is a base relief mural in the chapel. 
Doug and Shirley sort of prowled around with us, oohing and awing at things.
It was built in 1924 and LeGrand Richards was the first Bishop there! 
The father of the bride thought Dad looked like Orville Reddenbaher and wanted this picture for Facebook. 
Here Dad is visiting with Jon, who is a civil engineer who consults frequently with Udot.  He had lots of ideas for steering our battle to save our house. 
This is Matt and Erin and their family. Not sure who the lady in green is. 
Four of my five living brothers. We never saw Ross at all. 😕
After the ceremony at the Salt  Lake temple, we talked to Natalie about what a great Dad Bruce has been. All of his boys are active in the church. I did say I thought that might be partly because they lost their mother as children and they all were that determined to please her and be with her in heaven again.  I definitely think that loosing my Dad as a ten year old had that effect on me. I have felt him watching over me, all my life.   
In the marriage waiting room Phil shared a quote that's been attributed to C. S. Lewis.  "You don't have a soul, you are a soul, you have a body". Evidently more recent research finds it was actually George McDonald who was to have said it ( McDonsld was an English preacher and author and mentor to C.S. Lewis).  Never the less, it's a thought provoking consideration.  
We later switched cars with Davin and Bri so we could watch the munchkins.  They were in SLC looking at cars. 
We took them to swing at our house when we took dinner to Cheryl before returning to their house in Spanish. I think Nenna was a little nervous on the swing because she kept saying softly to her doll "it's ok baby, momma's right here."   
Today I hooked up with Becca and went to my friend Robyn Brown's farewell in Salt Lake.  

Dad stayed home to support the choir by singing with Brittney and Spencer in Sacrament  meeting here. . 
Here we are with Robyn and Bruce, Dad and I have known them since Emily was a baby.  That means I've known them longer than I've known Becca!  (though I probably knew Becca in the ore-existence 😊) Robyn was my visiting teaching partner and got me reading my scriptures daily, whiich I've done pretty much ever since!! They are headed off to Calgary, Canada to change more lives for the better. 

Becca knows them because she sold Robyn's family home earlier this year. 

This evening we got to FaceTime with Emily and Bekie. It was so fun!!  Guess we'll get to do lots of that when we're in Finland. 

Well that was a great week of supporting friends and neighbors and loved ones. The kind of week that keeps you closer to our Heavenly Father, and therefore happy!! Yeah! 

Sunday, June 19, 2016

The Week Dad Worked a Half Day

Ok, I'm starting this week with a picture taken almost a month ago. Bri's brother Broc got married last month, the day after we left for our cruise, so we missed it. But I wanted to share this picture of their family at the wedding! 
Now back to this week. Dad stayed home on Monday because his cough was getting worse. Since he was home we decided to meet with a lawyer, Willford Hanson here in Payson, to initiate our family trust and LLC 
I also unpacked and placed this lovely English breakfast set that I bought myself last week at the Treasures sale with the money I made selling old stock outside!  It was like spinning straw into gold. These sets were used for serving breakfast in bed to those lucky enough to have a ladies maid ala Downton Abbey. 
That night it was off to FHE at Kews. This is the Wings and Steve. 
On Tuesday Donelle texted to figure out how she could get her "welcome" sign she'd bought on the cruise that we'd then offered to bring home, as they were flying.   
  
That meant I had to unload and sort the van of vintage goodness to find it. Thank goodness. Once I had most of it out I took some pictures for a blog post. 
This metal dairy crate I'd got is a hoot. It's protected by a detective agency!!  

I met Donelle at her work to handed over the sign in Provo, then met Dad and our lawyer at an Orem  lawyer's office, who specializes in Trusts. 

Then Dad was off to work a half day and then he worked at the temple. 

When he got home that night he was miserable with a pain in his left ankle that he thought felt suspiciously like his blood clot two years ago. 

He called Dr Money at 9:30 PM on his cell and made an appointment for early Wednesday. 
His doctor visit and an ultrasound confirmed his suspicions. 
The doctor sent him home with a month's worth of a blood thinner he may take for the rest of his life ...  We hear it's spendy (Darby)  he was also instructed to stay home from work for 3 days and keep his leg elevated. 
That night Cheryl had the same thing for dinner we had. Chicken, veggies and noodles ...
But ours looked like this.  The joys of cooking for people with different tastes. 
On Thursday Dad stayed home to keep his foot up ... I was off to work for the Day. Aunt Joyce came in with my birthday gifts. She is such a sweetheart!! 
When I got home look who was there to visit. She'd gone to the barn so Darby could teach Zach to ride. Even though he didn't decide to ride he had fun and Ashley got a chance to ride "for the first time in 3 years"

Earlier that  day these cuties all got together for lunch and Becca shared the picture with me. Thanks Beckster!!  

We loaned our old van to a neighbor that needed to haul something and had a broken down vehicle, poor Dad, with his sore leg, had to haul seats out of the van.  What a good guy!  
On Friday I left Dad home to keep his leg up some more and went junking and to lunch with Joyce.  We were near the home on Hartford where we were born, so I opted for a picture. 
We also stopped at a couple of shops. I loved the medallion on the right at my friend Kim's daughter's shop; Retro Betty's   

When I. Got home the north drive was empty!!  Dad had hauled the boat away to be sold on consignment. It's the end of an era!!  Also for Dad it's the end of years of nagging. Sorry honey, I love You. 
That night Dad and I went to support some friends, Logan andJacqueline,    who are opening a new shop in Provo called The Copper Hive They were using this broken cement statue for part of their display, a statue that I gave Logan from our garden.  I was so happy to see he loved something I'd found annoying. 
We capped off our entertaining day by seeing Saturday's Warrior ... Which we didn't love as much as we had wanted to. 
On Saturday it was off to support Trevor as he supported the Huntsman Cancer 140 mile bike ride to raise money for cancer research. (he raised $2700 by promising to wear a tutu, then to grow out his hair and beard and then, last of all, to dye it teal blue!! 

We picked up J Scott and drove out to Elberta to meet him at the half way point. 
Here's the man!! 
Then he headed back to SLC. 
Becca's family drove out to Redwoid Road to intercept him and cheer him on!! 
I love this picture Becca took. 

After seeing him off Dad, J Scott and I went back to our house where J Scott  mowed our lawns, then headed to Fort Douglas ...
We joined these adorable supporters!! 
We had a fun wait cheering in other participants ... 
Then we cheered for Trevor!! 
We're so proud of him.  
While we were driving back and forth...  Spencer was taking his first yoga class!!  I love it!!  

That night we hooked up with the Kews and went out for Chinese then to see "Me Before You"  I liked it and hated it ... I read reviews on the book, and I think I'll read it... 
I taught my Relief Society lesson today. It was on inviting those who have wandered away back to "feast at His table". I love the imagery of that statement. The spirit there was amazing. 

After church I sat in the chapel and started this blog post while Dad, Spencer, Brittney and her Mom, Kathy practiced with the choir. 
After church we old people fell asleep in our chairs in the parlor for an hour before getting ready for our Father's Day BBQ
Then everyone started to gather. 
And visit and 
Chow down!!  Spencer managed the grill for us, because standing is so painful for Dad right now. 
Some of my boys!! 
Dad was thoroughly gifted, and we loved the box Ben and Hannah used for his gift ...  
Because it made us think of Emily!!  
Darby was late because of work, and we were thrilled she came. 
Addie and I matched!! 
Time to head home. We all had a great time!  Thank you all for coming to honor your amazing father!!