Two Birthdays and More Black Paint

 Here goes another week and this one starts off with witches ... yep, I started planning my witch's party.  I used this picture for my online invitation.  Dad meanwhile was finishing up the last bit of the last pillar to support the antique gate in the side yard.

That afternoon we headed north to see Sleeping Beauty on her birthday.  She'd been to Build a Bear for her birthday, and it must have been hard work, because we couldn't wake her up to give her presents.

 Prince Charming, however kept us entertained.

Her Mom later sent us this picture of her with part of her present.  How cute is this?

After our visit we headed to Home Depot, and bought mostly paint for various projects we had coming up. 

Then we picked up Hannah to go and see a Story Teller at the Provo Library.

 It was a first for Hannah, but we are old hands, having attended the Festival last month.

And here Dad and Hannah stand by a statue of Abraham O. Smoot for whom the library is named.  Just so we can mention, once more that Thomas Benjamin Clark, my Great Grandfather, saved his life.

On Tuesday Dad was hard at it once more, this time painting the gate.

I painted a couple of projects, and started getting out my Halloween decor.

That night we watched some of the footage of our WWII mini series, which we are enjoying a lot.

 On my walk with Ginny on Wednesday morning, I hauled this 1950's stool out of a garbage can.  I took it right to work and put $20 on it in the yard, I don't think it will last long.

 Bill and Melanie McBee came into the mall that day, looking for props for the wedding of one of their daughters.  The fun thing is that they were one of the couples who got married the year Dad was managing the Orem  store and had 8 temple marriages.  They called dad the Bishop of Macey's in those days.  Now he's a oral surgeon, and their second oldest child is getting married.  Its been a long time since we came to Orem in 1991.  Crazy.

I got off work a bit early so we could head to Salt Lake City for Jeff's birthday party.  Paint night, in a bar of all things.  We all had fun and now I can say I've done it.

 On Thursday a large glass case I had sold was to be called for, so I had brought in the antique pie safe that had been our TV cabinet before Finland.  So in shuffling the contents of my locked cases, I found these two pairs of circa 1920's glasses.  The ones Dad is wearing are bifocals, but not his prescription.  Mine are just readers, and work great for me.  How silly will I look wearing these.  They are super comfy and light weight, I forget I'm wearing them.

Dad had done his Temple shift, before going grocery shopping and bringing me my phone that I had left home.

 That night I went off to book club in Elk Ridge, and got to hear everyone's evacuation stories, as well as their miracle stories about how the fire was managed by the Lord.  How one of homeowners got a call that their house would be burning in the next hour, the fireman knew her and didn't want her to see her house burning on the news without knowing.  But then the flame stopped, and later petered out.  The fire had rushed down the hill covering several miles in less than an hour, the experienced wild land fire fighters, expected the city to be gone in another hour, but the fire stopped dead a half a mile from the closest house, and stayed there for three days.  

The winds were high, all around the general area, but directly over the fire threatening the houses, it was calm. Two Sundays in a row when people were fasting and praying for rain to stop the fire, it rained lightly, when there was no forecast of any chance of rain. We heard that even stakes outside of Utah were praying for Elk Ridge and its fire situation. 

 On Friday, Dad pulled off the aluminum window and frame work on the stairs window, revealing more wonderful woodwork.  He used tubes and tubes and tubes of caulking to fill in dried out wood work, and spaces between the old window and the stone.  He's sealing it off, so we won't be opening that window again, but then, we have rarely opened it. 

 I headed off to Book Club, this time my neophite ward book club.  This is our leader, Catherine Schulzke.  She's a great reader, and its been fun to get her perspective on books.

That night we attended a wedding reception and then a fiftieth wedding anniversary.  This is Naomi Dickens, shown on the right, and my old friend and walking partner Julie Johansen, who I haven't seen since before our mission.

 On Saturday I was up early and headed north with Carolyn the leader of our We Can group, and we attended the decorating workshop at PCMC.

Afterward we had time to kill before I dropped Carolyn off at the Temple for a family sealing, so we went to lunch and did some shopping, including this Halloween Shop.

 meanwhile Dad was a home babysitting sweet Van.  Spencer and Brittney had gone to the temple.  

 They did some serous bonding, for a couple of hours, then the four of them went out to lunch.  

That afternoon he got the woodwork on the stairs window painted up.

 After hitting a couple of DIs I met up with Barb and her sister Donelle at Cubby's in Lehi.

 Then we met up with Robin, Teri and Trina at Thanksgiving point to see, 'Crazy Rich Asians', which I actually liked, and found interesting.

 Then, when Dad was at Trevor's watching the BYU game, and I was at the movie, our Grandson Scott was at a school dance with this young lady, who happened to be the daughter of a couple who once worked with Trevor and Macey's, how fun is that?

 Here is Brittney, Bear and Van at Trevor and Nell's house, as they, and Spencer had also watched the BYU game.  I picked up dad and then we headed home.

On Sunday we had a quiet morning, then attended church.  After church we picked all the tomatoes in the garden and Dad ...

made up some delicious pico, a lot of it.  It is amazing to me how fast we can go through it, but at least its healthy, right?  and nothing tastes better than home grown tomatoes ... I rue the day we run out.

As for our mourning, it was a good week.  We talked about Ben with Hannah some, and she seems to be doing pretty well too.  I still run into people who have just learned about Ben, or who I haven't seen since they heard. People are so kind, and always assure me that they are praying for us, which we can still feel.

Aunt JoLyn called and talked for a while this week.  Having lost a son herself, she speaks with such empathy, I have become aware of just how many have suffered the loss of a child.  Who am I to think I am above such sorrows, its part of life, my own mother and mother-in-law had to deal with it.  I have two siblings who have dealt with it ... I know I too will come through.

Darby's horse is much better, and will be leaving the animal hospital soon.  I was touched by the fact that she feels like Ben had something to do with pulling strings to help him get well.  Its interesting to think that way, like he's an extra advocate for us.  Of course you all know that I believe I have a Brother there who is my advocate and I am very grateful for that knowledge.

Memories New and Old and the BLP Memorial Garden

So here we go again, another Monday and another week has begun.  This is a picture of Dad at the Senior Missionary reunion we had at the Sullivan's in Salt Lake.  Shown here are Rick London, Bruce Sullivan, Erick Erickson and Dad.  The Ericksons live in Virginia, and were out here for a couple of weeks, the guys are shown after their sauna.

I have a post member friend who thought it was hilarious, that a bunch of  senior missionaries were getting together for sauna and lunch.   She mentioned it several times, but I think the Finnish Culture is more than eating rye bread and rakka, and that's what they were celebrating.

 Here are the same suspects, with Richard Pickering, who came post sauna. So with their clothes on are Pickering, Erickson, London, Perkins and Sullivan, our host.

 

I left before pictures were taken, but here is Faye Wade, Lynn London, Joyce Erickson, Vivian Sullivan, Claudia Pickering.

We visited about losing Ben, and the directions that all of our lives had taken, in general.  We've each had some pretty unbearable trials, so I thought that the quote that Vivienne had on her wall was apropos. We sometimes have to remind ourselves that there's a lot of living to do between now and the time we get to see Ben again.  One of the ladies parents have lost three of their children, and have sort of made them perfect in their minds, and have mourned them to the point that their living children feel somewhat neglected.  I hope that Dad and I never make any of you feel that way.  Yes, we love Ben, yes we miss him, but we are so grateful that we have such wonderful children still here with us.

 I left early, because the Finn Reunion fun was planned for the same day as my art group garden tour.  I was so sad, as I was supposed to have them all come down to my garden/gardenhouse/tea party too, but I had to relinquish that and have my art group gals start later in the day so I could even attend.  Here friends Ann and Jann take pictures inside Kimi's newly outfitted garden shed.

 Here we are in Kimi's garden, Jann, Cindy, me, Shirley,Kimi, Margo, Joanne, Ann and Margie.

 After tea and cake, it was off to Jann's house.  This is the garden house that her husband built for her.

... and here is the group again, this time gifting me a wonderful pixie garden that they got together and made for me last week, to help me with my grief.  Are they not the sweetest friends known to man? or should I saw woman?

Kimi made the attached hang tag.  We had crackers and berry/jalapeno jelly with cream cheese at this stop.

 Next we arrived at Joanne's house and fun shabby pavilion. 

 Here are some of the girls.

 ...and again.

 They planned the menu around my vegetarianism, which made me feel bad, but no one complained about the pesto and Parmesan crusted salmon.  It was the best I've had.  Yum.

 ... and it was fun getting to know Joanne's feathered friends as well. 

On Tuesday Dad and I headed to Salt Lake to attend the funeral of Dad's friend Clark's brother-in-law.  It was an interesting funeral, that of a man who was pretty much always active in the church, a runner, and biking enthusiast, who after loosing his job fifteen years ago was suffering from some depression, and let a "friend" talk him into taking cocaine.  He hid the use from his wife for nine months, before taking a hit that caused brain damage.  He spent the last fifteen years slowly fading away in a wheel chair.  It was sooo sad.  He did however tell everyone he could about the fact that taking drugs could have this result.  He considered it his service to others, which it definitely was.

 We went to lunch at Grandpa Carlo's favorite place, before stopping to visit with my cousin Brent and his wife Dar.  They have recently settled his sister Sharon in an assisted living place, and have sold their parents home to their grand son, who is going to fix it up and rent it.  Brent now had all of his mother, Helen's, photo albums and let me take a look at them.  This is a picture of my mom with Aunt Helen, my favorite Aunt. Aunt Helen passed away, just a year before mom.  They were best friends.

 This is a picture of Aunt Helen around the time of her marriage, what a beauty.

 This is a picture of my mom with Ruby Haight, my Dad's cousin, at a family reunion.  (She's married to the apostle David B. Haight)

 Here we are with Dar and Brent.  Doesn't she look amazing for being eighty?  I think so.

 Next we went over to visit Sharon, who is just a few blocks away.  She has all of her old spunk and asked after several of the kids by name, remembering their situations.  She was always such a good friend, she lived with her mother at home, until her mother's death in 1998, then continued there until her recent resettlement.

 Here's a picture of Dar, Brent and Sharon as young adults.

I was thrilled to see this picture of Grandma Larsen in her wedding dress, because it had been my belief that none of my ancestors had had wedding dresses.  It will be perfect for my bridal room.

 Towards the end of our visit Brent and Dar's oldest daughter, Brenda, came by for a visit.  Brenda's not a lot younger than I am, since her parents married when I was two.  She has worked at The Store (where Dad got his start) for forty one years, how crazy is that.  It has been fun to see her in that connection over the years, though. 

 On Wednesday morning Dad and I placed the pixie garden on the stump of one of the two catalpa trees that Ben cut down for us.  How perfect is that.  Its the Benjamin Lars Perkins Memorial Garden.

This is what it looks like in balance with the fairy garden on the other stump that I put together 6 years ago.

Here is a selection of pictures from Becca's family's trip to Disneyland this week.  They took their new nanny along, she is wearing the orange shirt.  Their was a memorial place in the Coco area of the park.  I thought that was nice for them.

 I had another dealer take this picture of me in my new shirt on Wednesday.  Robin has this shirt and wore it last weekend, I loved it and asked her to order one for me.  We had stopped by her place on the way home from Salt Lake the night before.  I love it, and of course everyone compliments it because it isn't black.  Hahaha.

 After work I got away as quickly as I could to join Dad in Spanish Fork at Confetti Antiques and Books, to hear Brent Ashworth speak.  He's a long time historic papers collector, who often shops at Treasures.  He was involved back in the day with the Mark Hoffman debacle  and is very interesting.

 This letter is one written from Brigham Young to his Son Brigham Morris Young.

 Here he shows us a page from a young girl's autograph book from the 1800's.  Its a note from President Lincoln, from the time he was deciding whether of not to run for president.

 Brent's biography and a record of his collecting and collections has recently been published, and though I had to leave a bit early, Dad purchased one and got Brent and the author to sign it. 

 I meanwhile was off to our church to watch our girls play chocolate pudding pictionary.  This is our girl Rosie.

 Here Ava shows her stuff.

I even got to play.  Can you tell my word was 'light'?

 When I was working Thursday, this couple came into the store and I recognized them as being 'White Shanty Home' on IG,  She's a lifestyle poster and lives in Provo in a barn that they built into a house.  I didn't even know she was local, until she did a post about being thankful for her wonderful husband who honors his priesthood.  Anyway, they have been contacted by Country Living, who is coming to do a 12 page spread on them for next fall.  They had a few fix ups that they need to do before the film crew arrives, and spent 1500 buckeroos.  Lucky for us.

While at work I got a face time request from these girls.  Abby had fallen at the park and was at the hospital getting stitches.  What a brave little girl.  It was fun to connect, even though it was because of her injury.  I love the Internet for staying connected to my kids.

 I'd started split pea soup before leaving for work that day, which made Dad very happy when he came home from the temple that afternoon.

On Friday afternoon I met up with Arlene at the Jordan River Temple to do a session.  It was lovely, and I did a much better job of staying awake than usual.  We had Zupas afterward and a nice long talk.   On the way home I stopped at the Holy Cow boutique in Lindon.  I had a couple of friends that were selling stuff, but saw neither of them, and bought nothing.  I am really swearing off these in the future, they just don't fit my life anymore.

Dad had kept busy that day adding more rows of bricks to his final pillar.  He expects to finish it up on Monday. 

 On Saturday we headed south just after 7 A.M. to go to Katie's baby shower in St George.  Here she is shown by the loot table.  She had so many friends from playing golf, and golf coaches, and extended family from as far north as Eden, that it was very crowded.

 I thought this was an adorable gift.

 Katie's grandmother crocheted this adorable granny square afghan.  Its the only afghan pattern that I actually like.  Isn't it sweet?

 The invitation had requested favorite children's books instead of cards, we took a copy of Panda Cake, since it was one of our favorites for our children.

 Here is Katie as she opens her gift from Brittney and Spencer.  Our gift was a package of four swaddlers (trendy muslin receiving blankets) and some long sleeved t-shirts, both of which we had picked off her registry.

After the shower Dad told Cheryl about Ben.  It was pretty hard to watch.  Like everyone, I think Ben was her favorite.  I'm not sure that she really ever needed to know, but Dad felt strongly that he should tell her.  I felt terrible by the time we left.

 We got home in time to change into Sunday clothes and run over to a reception at the park.  The son of Rick and Jill had just gotten married.  Dad served as one of Rick's counselors in the nursing home branch for two years before our mission.

 Here's the happy couple.

 I thought the cake was lovely.  Then we headed to Pleasant Grove expecting to hear Nell speak at Stake Conference, and to hear Trevor sing in a quartet.  Nope, didn't happen their adult session of Stake Conference starts at 6, not 7 like all the stakes we've lived in.  Frowny face.  

 The bright side was Dad running into Randy Johnson, who served with him in Finland the first time around.  He lives on the other side of the water tank that Trevor and Nell live next to, but is in another ward.  Elder Johnson was an Assistant to the President, and had a native Finnish companion. 

 When I got home I hung this sign I'd gotten at one of my DI stops in Salt Lake on Friday.  Isn't it perfect for the theme of our bedroom?

 As part of our ministering lesson in Relief Society (Yes, I got to go because the Young Women are being included as partners in Ministering now) we all went to the Gym where they had taped of the streets in our ward, so everyone could stand on their address and see who their neighbors are.  Yeah, we live in the south west corner of the ward without an active LDS family withing two blocks in both directions.  Was it something I said? 

Sweet Ava came to keep me company in my lonely corner.  What a sweet girl.

So that was our week.  We managed to keep busy, which was nice.  We got to see some friends and family which was even nicer.  We hope you all had a lovely week as well.