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.