Penny Perkins Party, Pain and Plays

 On Monday night as we pulled up to Trevor and Nell's, we saw that Penny was all ready for her grandparent-birthday party.  She was wandering around the neighborhood with a neighbor girl in party hats.  That made us smile.

There was a unicorn pinata to break ...

and a donut birthday cake.

 Eva

Scott

and Eleanor.

Perkins Grandparents

And Grow Grandparents too.

And perfect pretty presents for precious Penny Perkins.

Nell sent me this picture of her in one of our gifts ... Wonder Woman!!

On Tuesday Dad ran for his first time since last fall.  He said it was a lot more work than he remembered. 

Nell started her chemo that day, so we thought of her often, and offered up quick prayers.  Her chemo ended up taking all day.  She will be spending a day like this every three weeks time six...  I know she and her family are feeling your prayers and well wishes. 

 I went to the Dentist and had a filling, then headed to Davis County to visit my friend Arlene, before doing several hours of junking.  Dad had a dentist appointment as well, and had a filling done too.  That night we listened to the rest of the last Harry Potter book in the living room.

On Wednesday, Dad drove up to Orem to watch Zach for a bit and take him to school, as Ashley had an appointment.

After he got back from that, since I was a work, he got to go with his favorite realtor to lunch.  She was in town for a Realtors Group Meeting.  Lucky Dad.  That night he had his Barbershop practice, and I came home, and sluffed Young Women's, because it had been an exhausting day at work.

I worked again on Thursda.  I brought in a doll china cupboard I had just bought, to paint, and this birthday tiara was in the drawer.  Keith was good enough to model it.  Chuck, another dealer, is shown behind. 

 Didn't it turn out cute?  I had found three children's tea sets (2 from the 1930's) and half a dozen demitasse cups and saucers in the last month, so finding the china cabinet on Tuesday was perfect timing.

After working at the temple, Dad ran up to watch Becca's children for a bit.

Here's little Madi Mischief.

and Mr. Mac too.

so much fun for grandpa.

 I, meanwhile, had gotten off work and headed home to straighten up and make dessert for my book club ladies.

 We always have a good time at book club.

On Friday was I was driving home from walking (I meet Carolyn at the High School and we walk on the indoor track) I saw this green guy running.  It took me a second to realize it was Dad.  

I'm trying to up my anti-0xydants, so here is  my purple breakfast. Beet/orange juice, blue berries and fried purple potatoes ... their were also whole wheat pancakes with real maple syrup.

 Afterward Dad headed out and mowed the grass jungle, he has created.  I took down the fall decor from the garden house, and pulled out all the furniture before doing a good sweep, and starting to paint the floor.  I got it all done, and even had enough paint to repaint the door.  I just didn't get a picture of the finished products.

Then Dad headed to Salt Lake to Spencer's to help him with some electrical projects.  I ran up to get Trevor and Nell's kids, and brought them back to Payson to see Little Orphan Annie at Payson High.  Here is Penny with Melia, from our ward, who she got to know while they lived here.

I had wanted to come to the play, as Hannah Bibler, who is one of our Young Women, was playing one of the lead parts in the play.

Scott is such an amazing big brother.  Penny adores him, don't we all?

Penny had gotten a bag of M and M's for her treat, but the big kids had all gotten chips.  When her treat was gone, they were still eating theirs.  She wanted them to share, which they did, but I finally told her I would buy her chips when the curtain closed, indicating intermission.  As the lights came up, she jump off her chair and stated rubbing her hands together, as if to say "Oh goody, its chip time."  I thought she was so, so funny.

Here's Hannah again with 'Annie' in one of the final scenes.

But one of the funniest moments of the night is when I realized that this chase lounge is one that I bought at auction, and reupholstered more than ten years ago and sold at Fleaology.  How weird is that?  The little girl here, played one of the orphans and offered to pose on the chase for me. What a cutie.

Here I am with Hannah.

Eleanor posed this one herself, funny girl.

Now the lion is going to eat Penny's hand.

After the play Scott was catching up with Melia.  You may recall that it was Melia who participated in the Les Mis sing-along event several months back.  Trevor and Nell and their family really befriended her when they lived here, so I was glad to see Scott taking the time to connect with her.

On Saturday we were up early and off.  I dropped Dad off in West Jordan, where he had an all day Barbershop practice.  Aaron Dale directs a chorus in Kentucky and came out to coach the group as they continue to prepare for the International competition in July, as well as for a show on May 18th.

I headed to Vintage Market Days in Logan ...

along with Laura Gray.  It was fun to catch up and to find 

 all these goodies, for my various collections.  All of them for very good prices, too.  Laura and I had some Cafe Rio, before heading back to Salt Lake, where I got Dad and took him back north to Bountiful for a reunion planning meeting at Faye Wade's house.  

Next it was off to the Hale Center Theater in Salt Lake to see Matilda, along with Tami Christenson, the Prestons and the Moes.

 Then today we drove to Kaysville to attend the Harris' homecoming, they are shown on the far left, then us, the Londons and the Vests.  In front are Elder Fielding and Sister Atkinson.

Later Sister Bradbury (Now Dugger) came with her husband.  As always we loved catching up with our Finnish connections.

We got home and read and napped in our chairs, then look who came for a visit!

We love visiting with our kids, as you all know.

And who wins the baby with the biggest eyes award?

What a lovely visit.

And in the new look department ... Here is Charly with her new hair cut...

And grandpa with his new glasses.

Seven Days of Easter

Here we go again ... but with a twist.  Because of our Come Follow Me study about the last week of Christ's mortal life last Sunday, we were both focused on his life through the week.  When I ran into this Donkey and her foal on my early morning walk with LaVern on Monday, it refocused me on the that last week. 

Also on Monday Dad took me to the Provo DI before taking  me to the Dentist to have a back molar pulled.  I am a supreme wimp and even paid extra for Nitrous Oxide.  Even with that, I couldn't relax, but in time the deed was done and I was sent home to recover. 

On Tuesday, after round the clock ice and ibuprofen therapy, I know my pain was nothing to what my Savior suffered, but it was enough to remind me that his suffering was beyond our comprehension.

I did manage to get up and walk slowly with Carolyn.  The doctor said getting my heart rate up could ignite a new bleed.

 I mainly took it easy, and Dad went shopping.  He brought me home a task to do, and I filled the eggs for later in the week.

Aren't they pretty.

Also that day Dad took a picture of the tulips starting to bloom.  Its interesting that all the tulips Danny folks brought us 19 years ago have turned back to the basic yellow, I think that's a sign of neglect.  Hmmmm.

Here is Wednesdays Meme.  I am with the Young Women, participating in the activity that the second counselor, the Beehive adviser and I had worked together to create to commemorate Christ's last week.

I made a new display with all the demitasse cups and saucers I found at DI on Monday, when I worked Wednesday.

Dad had his Finnish lesson, as usual, on Wednesday, and did some repairs on the mailbox and did some laundry before heading to SLC for Barbershop.

I went to Young Women's that night and met with the Beehives.  We strung notes onto palm branches

We laid the palms on the graves of people that we had known, like Brother Madson, the father of our former bishop. 

and the grave of President Willardson.  We also left them on the graves of the recently buried, hoping to bring comfort to the loved ones of those who had recently passed.

On Thursday, I focused on the twine I had tied around my wrist the day before.  In our Lesson Andrea Robertson had shown us a short video from LDS Living, about Simon of Cyrene, who was drafted in the moment to carry the cross of Christ.  We were challenged to look for unexpected opportunities to be like Simon. 

When I got home from walking that day, I found this chicken strutting around our garden house area.  Dad said he chased them around when he mowed on that day.  They belong to our new neighbors on the East and I love them ... I just wish there was a rooster to remind me of Hawaii. 

Isn't the lawn looking great?  Dad has really outdone himself following a grass health program he picked at the local Hardware store.

At work on Thursday I  changed out this booth, which badly needed some work ... and was rewarded with the sale of three items from it by the end of the day.

When I got home, I moved my mushrooms out of the window in the parlor to make room for this lovely and serene bust.  I think she was a high school project, but the artist was very talented. Its dated 1973, just a year after I made a very bad one.  She reminds me of the ideal Young Woman, so I thought she deserved to be crowned, don't you?

My potted mushrooms made their way into the dining room, to be the centerpiece along with this Victorian Repro plant holder that I bought off another dealer that day.

 That night we went to opening night of Mama Mia at Salem Hills High School.

Gabe Moyar from our ward played Bill, shown on the right ...

and did a great job.  Here he is on the left.  The entire production was very well done.  I will note that the program took state in the previous week, so it shouldn't be a surprise.  The second place high school at state was Spanish Fork's program.  Their drama coach is married to the woman who runs the program at SHHS, not coincidentally.

Here we are after the play with David, Ingrid and Gabe Moyar to our left and Savannah and Josh Christianson, also ward members on our right. They happen to be the couple that the Bishop wants us to invite to live here while we're gone.  She is from Montana, and he's from Mapleton.  They came by to see the house after the play and it looks like they will be staying here.

On Friday, after watching another video on LDS Living, I dyed some eggs with onion skins.  The moderator said that her son had served a mission in Serbia, and had learned about how they and other Eastern European orthodox peoples do this in honor of Christ shedding blood for us, as part of the Atonement, and how the people keep a red egg all year to protect their households and to honor the Lord Jesus Christ.

Dad and I headed to Salt Lake after that so that he could work out plans for Darby's basement.  We stopped at Spencer's to get some tools he would need, then I dropped him at Darby's and went junking.

When I got back I got to see Darby's new lawn mower they had gone to buy, and saw her horses enjoying the results.

Dallas came by to pick her up for a date, so we got to say hi-bye, before heading south for a date of our own.

We met up with the Kews for dinner.  We went to Yamato restaurant by their shop in Orem.  We loved it.

Terry got tempura veggies ... how yummy does that look?

 In other news for the day, Charlie had an adventure in Boise at her school carnival.  Good job, brave girl!

Also that day, two of our missionaries went to Comic Con, and saw the 7 foot Finn, Yoonas Suotama, who plays Chewbacca in the new Star Wars movies.  Karrisa said that he comes from Espoo, the town where she not only served as a missionary, but where she worked as an au pair after her mission.  Its also the town we lived in for 15 months of our mission as well.  Johan Fontanet is a Finn who also served as a missionary with us.  How fun is this?

In non fun news, Nell got her chemo port surgically installed that day.  We hope that you all continue to pray for her, or send wishes of healing, or what ever you do when you care about people. 

On Saturday we got to participate with the Grandkids who live close in a traditional egg hunt... Darby hosted and she and Dallas dyed real hard boiled eggs ... but we'll get to that later.

On Saturday morning Dad left me to loaf in bed and headed to the church to do cleaning.  Since Trevor took a picture of a plaque at a church for us last week, Dad thought he'd return the favor.  Do you see that it has J. Scott getting his eagle?  Do you notice when the previous scout got his?  Yeah to Scott and your parents.

After he got home, we headed out to get some things for the Hawaiian haystacks we were to make for our egg fest that night.  I happened on this guy and it made me laugh.  I asked if I could take an anonymous looking pic, and after pulling up his pants some, he agreed.  Sorry, a bit irreverent, but who doesn't need a laugh.

 Our Charley was busying doing Dance competitions that day ... which is evidently very hard work for a pint sized beauty.

 When we got to Darby's house she was busy exercising her horses ... the paddock is completely bare of grass now, and the horses seem very happy.

Soon it was time for our Easter Bunny to hide the eggs.

Van was less than thrilled with his first experience.

Mac, however saw some joy in the hunt, but was totally satisfied with a single egg.

Penny enjoyed gathering a few.

and the bigger kids had a lot of fun.

I loved this picture of Elias.

Darby had offered a special prize for finding green hard boiled eggs, so all the kids were extra excited when they found any hard boiled egg. Maddy is showing me hers, hoping it qualifies for the prize.

The tall grass was a great place to find eggs.

Dallas did a great job of keeping an eye on the kids.  The fully fenced yard was a great comfort.

You'll note that everyone is having fun, except Van ... poor boy.  Also note that Titan and Reagan found the coveted green eggs.

Dallas sat on the back porch, most of the evening, keeping an eye on the kids as they played on the back grass between the house and the paddock.  Briahnna snapped this picture of his bonding with Nenna.  I love it.

I loved this picture of Trevor lovin on his darling wife ... I just wish the picture had come out as sweetly as the real life view.

 Thanks for your hard work Eva. The hunt was a success.

J Scott missed the event because he had prom, and went with a large group of friends.  Here he is in his prom finery with one of his 'best girls'. 

After everyone left, we packed up the leftover food and Dad did the dishes.  We also got to chat with Dallas and Darby about their Italy trip for a while.  That was a lot of fun.

Then it was Easter Sunday, the day we celebrate the resurrection of our Savior Jesus Christ.  We hope that seeing our red egg all year will help us to better remember and honor him for the sacrifice he made for each of us nearly 2,000 years ago.

 We had stake conference, and the meeting was lovely.  Here we see Dad on the stand, next to Elmo Keck, the choir director, who is talking to his accompanist.  You may recall that we got to know Elmo when his wife was in a care center that was included in the 12th Branch when Dad was in the Branch Presidency before our mission.  We ran into him again at the MTC where he is the assistant director of the choir there.

He is very talented and the choir was simply amazing.  I know that Dad loved being a part of it.  I just wish I could have taken a picture during the performance, they all looked great.

There were four young people who spoke about their experience with their growing testimonies using the Come Follow Me programs with their families.  It was amazing, I can only wish that we had had the program, or had done better with Scripture Study and FHE, when our children were that age.  But we are grateful for the Come Follow Me program as we use it at home.  We feel the spirit to an amazing degree as we read, discuss and study together on Sundays after church.

I always loved to see paintings of Jesus portrayed as a shepherd, this one is by one of Trevor and Janell's favorite artists, who lives in our neighboring town of Woodland Hills.

and just for fun, a picture of the daughters of a member in Espoo, dressed up as witches, a traditional Finnish Easter activity.

Thanks for joining us as we relive our wonderful pre-Easter week.