Per Perkins Perhe: Parlor Painting Party

We had another great week. It started out with me trying out my wings after book club. These are in downtown Payson, outside a clothing store that Janis and I also checked out.

When I got home, Dad was hard at work on painting more of the trim in the Parlor.

That night we went to see a Steam Punk version of A Midsummer Night's Dream. I loved the costumes, like these triple bustles.

This is Gab Moyar, playing the part of Bottom. It was a great production. It was the third time I've seen the play, and the first time I could follow the plot. They did a great job.

Here is Dad with Gab after the play, he really is a great kid.

On Tuesday we started in on the painting again. You may recall that the pillar on the south side of the spandrel doorway into the dining room was missing its molding. In this picture the dark brown pieces are original, Dad found them in a box in my old work room in the basement a couple of years ago, but there were not enough to finish up the pillar. He took a piece to Home Depot, with a small hope of being able to match it. What he found instead was a wainscotting molding, that he cut about a third off, lengthwise, and which then matched. How amazing is that?

I took the extra pieces and the crystals off the old 1930's ceiling fixture, and then we took turns painting it, along with the ceiling medallion. We both worked on painting for the rest of the afternoon.

That night we went to Pleasant Grove and baby sat some cute girls.

On Wednesday I hauled some house cast offs to the mall, shown here are the red chest from our room, and the wooden wash stand we were using in the parlor. I covered it with my Christmas merchandise. Oh, and the little figural plant stand that was my pride and joy in my Victorian days, sold within an hour of taking it in. I'd paid 125 for it 15 years ago and it sold for 175. I wish everything worked that way.

Dad worked on more painting that day, and then when I got home we headed to the church together. He had signed up to babysit in the nursery during a Relief Society activity. I had Young Women's. Here he is with Brother Jaussi, at this point there were three watchers and three watchees.

The Young Women were learning how to tie quilts, as they did two that had been pieced by one of their advisers.

Bonnie Harman is in the Presidency, shown at the top of the picture. We found out last week that she and Brett have bought property in Genola, and Joette and her family are buying their house here in the ward.

I spent most of my time with the YW, but then went into the Gym to put together a couple of banners as well.

On Thursday, at work, while I was working on ornaments for the Festival of Trees, Emily called. Becca and Hannah flew to Texas Wednesday and Emily was nice enough to facetime when they were all at a ridiculously expensive shoe store. It was fun to visit, and it looks like they are having so much fun.

When I got home, Dad had rented a wallpaper steamer and had gotten off all the wallpaper boarder. Then he had mostly finished the painting in the parlor. So, though I did do a lot of the white trim paint, which took two long days, Dad painted the ceiling and all of the blue paint himself. He's the best, don't you think.

Then we were off to a stake training meeting for the implementing of the new Come Follow Me program in the church, that starts in January.

I had to leave a bit early, to go to my book club, but Dad stayed an additional half hour.

On Friday Dad got the little bit that was unfinished on the painting, done, while I painted the wood on the bench white, in anticipation of reupholstering it.

We had to return the wall paper steamer by 3, so we cleaned up and headed north. We were to meet Darby to see the house she trying to get, but had an hour to kill. We stopped at the DI in AF and ran into Jake Carter. I would not have recognized him, but once Dad stopped me to introduce me to him, I knew who it was. He and his wife have 3 kids, a 5 year old girl and boy and girl 2 year old twins. It was so fun to catch up with him, he was always one of my favorite kids in the ward.

Next we met Darby at the house in Riverton, just shy of Bluffdale. Here she is chatting with her home inspector, at the back of the back yard grass and the front of the 1/4 acre of pasture. Its all very nice. I hope it works out.

The issue is that it was a half acre with animal rights, but Udot widened Redwood Road a bit, and paid the owner for the land, but it was mandatory, and then the property was not the minimum required size for horse property. Now the owners are working with a lawyer to convince the city that a variance would be appropriate in the case.

Next we headed south several miles on Redwood Road, to Barb and Randy's house in Saratoga Springs. We arrived a little early, so we decided to take a walk along Utah Lake which their house backs on. It was just sunset and the reflection on the slightly misting lake with its image of the Wasatch Mountains, including Timpanogos, was simply magical. The Moes are six house down from the city boat harbor, so we walked along the back pathway until we got there.

This man, and two others were fishing. When we first arrived the man was casting, hooking and pulling in one fish after another. As soon as he recast, he got a bite and pulled it in, and threw it in his cooler. We watched him pull out 7 back to back to back like that. He said they are white bass, and when we googled it we found that they are not super popular for eating, since they taste too fishy. It was amazing to watch.

At the Moes house we had a lovely dinner with the Heuers as well. I love both the Heuers' and the Moes' new houses. If I weren't so in love with my house I might be tempted to go build a house there. Being on the lake is simply amazing.

After dinner we headed to the Moes' stake musical performance of The Children of the Promise. It was an ambitious undertaking, and I thought they did a pretty good job of it. Dad and I had listened to the five books that comprise the series on our mission, so the story line was pretty fresh in our minds. It was interesting to see how they chose top events and skimmed from one to another. It made sense to us, but to people who had not read it, I'm not sure it was as much appreciated. Barb and I are shown here with one of the performers.

On Saturday I was off to my friend Jenn Reed's Vintage Christmas Show at the Convention Center in Provo. I was VERY surprised to see Robin and Teri Quigg there. Robin said she didn't even know it was a Vintage show, and had thought, "This looks like Paula's kind of thing." Then we ran into each other. How fun is that?

I was admiring this young man's beautiful hair, when his wife came over, I guess she just couldn't compete with that. I love her confidence and their relationship seems so fun.

I ran into several dealers I know, and had a lot of fun chatting. Brandon and his aunt used to do fleaology, he is so much fun. He actually has always reminded me of Ben, and that makes it more fun to visit with him now. He and his brothers, now do Junk Hunks and even have an occasional store.

That night Dad had his fun, and went to see BYU play with Trevor and Spencer.

Doesn't it look like they had fun?

We got the living room put back together between my antique shopping and Dad's football game, except for the coffee table, which I then painted the lower portions of after Dad left. We moved it into the parlor this morning and took some pictures.

Dad had a Presidency meeting with the Elders, since he has been called as the Service Coordinator in the quorum, while I worked on my lesson as I was to teach in YW

We had the Primary Program today, and it was wonderful, I think I cried on and off through the whole program, but when they sang the newest Primary Song, I Will Be What I Believe, that I had heard Emily teaching in her Primary in Texas, I so wanted to just buy plane tickets and be there to see her lead their Primary program.

My lesson went well. The new teaching style with teenagers, is to lead a discussion, rather than to 'teach' directly. I actually think it went pretty well, which was a relief. We talked about self reliance, and how it tends toward serving others.

After church we went home and I made salmon soup from a Finnish recipe. It required some substitutions, but it turn out to be pretty close to that which we had in Finland. Yum.

Then it was time to go back to the church to set up for our Young Women in Excellence program. Dad had gone to stake choir practice and joined me when the program started at 7.

This is Azzrin and Emma. Azzrin come from a totally inactive family, and is just amazing. Of course the other girls had their parents there, and part of the activity was to write a letter to their daughter about how amazing she is. As it turned out Azzrin got three letters, all from leaders, including me, and was thrilled.

Our President made the cup cakes. They have a filling and are very moist. Its in their family lore that once one of her kids said how amazing they were and asked what they were called, she started to tell them they were called "Better than s..." when she caught herself and said "Better than Soccer cupcakes", which has lived on to be their family's name .... sorry, it just made me giggle.