So Much of Life Ahead

So this was our first full week home after serving a mission to Finland for the last year and a half.  If you'd like to see our blog posts done during our time there you can check out, notfinnishedyet17.blogspot.com  

This week we did a lot of unpacking, sorting, moving, etc.  The things mentioned  below are above ad beyond that.

 On Monday Dad went into the dentist to replace a filling he'd lost,  I went off to play with the ladies at We Can, the small service organization I belong to.  Here I have finished a small stuffed heart to be included in gift baskets given to women as they enter one of Utah's Women's Shelters.

 Fives ladies had left before we thought to take some pictures.  You can see we have fun, including

finishing up with a nice potluck luncheon.

That night I went and got my hair cut by Becca's sister-in-law Armanda.  Then we headed to Ikea for dinner, and to pick up a few things we enjoyed having when we were in Finland.

We stopped on the way home at Amy Coleman Hintze's house to pick up the pies we bought on Pi Day.  She and her husband Brian made and sold pies as a fund raiser for their son's upcoming mission.  We ordered three.  Yum.

Dad loved it when he found out that the Janet Hintze who had married one of his two best buddies in high school, John Boren, is actually Brian's older sister.  Crazy.  Amy is the same age as our Ashley and they were friends when we lived in the Butler 8th ward,

 On Tuesday we went into the mall to work on moving out of my larger booths at the North Mall.  We had cleared out a large cupboard and were making room for it in the south mall, when we looked up and saw Ben.  What are the chances?  He was there shopping and agreed to help Dad haul the cupboard over and place it.  We love this guy, like super man, he just shows up, right when you need him.

After working at the mall, we headed to Trevor's so Dad could help him a bit with his sprinklers.  It was fun to see and play with the kids while the Dads worked.  Nell made a lovely Mexican dinner for us all, which we enjoyed very much.

 I worked on Wednesday, while Dad headed off to have a new cavity drilled and filled.  Yeah Dad, he got back to the mall in time to meet up with our friend Stina and her girls.  She is expecting twin girls!  How fun is that?

 That night we met up with Darby and Dallas for dinner at the Bombay House to celebrate Darby's birthday a bit belatedly.

On Thursday I got most of the stuff moved out of the big booth and got the majority of it into this booth, that I then marked half off.  It was a long day, and I was exhausted.

Dad, meanwhile, was doing something that was more fun.  He got to hang out with Becca's kids.  This one is so fun to hold.

 On Friday Dad took the decorative brass curtain header off the large window in the parlor and we headed north.  We ended up at Bits n Pieces, an occasional antique store, opened just the first weekend of each month.  My friend Marcy and her friend run it.  We gifted her the brass header, as she had expressed an interest in it when she helped me decorate the parlor 6 years ago.  She was tickled.  Her show is adorable, and I loved it.

Afterwards we checked out several stores looking for a pair of chairs for our living room.  We are giving Becca the piano, and want another set of chairs in its place for more seating.

We hit TJMaxx, Home Goods and Down East, where we found a pair of red recliners for our bedroom, but which we can use in our Parlor for our homecoming in a couple of weeks.

We also stopped by Trader Joes for some flavored pepper grinders and triple ginger snaps .... yum.

That night I finished up the five felt hearts I'd taken home to complete, as well reading most of my book club book.

 On Saturday we got out the duplo again, for the first time in a year and a half.  Becca was signing a new client down this end of the country, so we got to play.  Please note that Madison is putting on Mr. Potato head glasses .... I always love that. Then that night about ten the doorbell rang and there was Darby and Dallas coming for a house tour.

Sunday morning we were up early to report our mission to the high council. It was fun to get back to church, and see a few old friends and meet many new ones.  The ward has been added to twice since we left, with the previous addition being just a year earlier.  The ward is huge now, like the ones Dad and I grew up in.  Testimony meeting was so sweet, with such a wide range of people and experiences.  We sat in the middle of three rows on which were three families with inter racial marriages, one woman married to a black, a man married to an Asian, and another man married to a woman from South America.Two handicapped young women bore there testimonies, as well as a man and his son, both of whom are well known for service.  Three teenagers, with strong testimonies.  There was a pregnant woman who'd been in a serious car accident, another woman whose brother had recently become a parapelegic, who was  trying to get funding for a 17,000 flight to a hospital that works with his type of paralysis, another woman's had recently helped her mother who had suffered a stroke, and another was dealing with the loss of a brother.  All talked about how the Lord had helped them through these situations.  It was such an uplifting meeting.  I know I am going to love this humble ward.

After dinner we headed back to the church to see Drew Anderson receive his Eagle Scout award.

Dad got to sit in a very large Eagles's nest.  We also saw a lot of old faces, and I even got to meet Shanna and Joe Weight's baby in person. After the eagle court of honor we dropped in on dad's cousin Jerry who lives in Uncle Blaine and Aunt Doris' house.

So that was our first full week home.  Its nice to meet up with friends and work on getting the house up and going again.