Eva's Graduation Week

Another week of beautiful and wet spring weather.  On Monday  I went to the dentist to get my tooth ground down for a crown, where as Dad was off to do cleaning at the temple, since its closed Mondays, they do the week's major cleaning that day.  Afterward I went to lunch with Wendy at Cafe Rio, before heading to her house to check out all the antique goodness she had in this storage shed for sale.

I have always loved this quilt, between us, and now its mine ... its a yo yo quilt, and a keeper.

Just for fun, here are some pics of our two Bens,  On top are pics of Benjamin Paul, at a week, and newborn.  On the Bottom are Benjamin Lars, at a week, and as a new born.  What do you think?

On Tuesday I stopped on the way home from walking at the high school, to take a couple of pictures of this house to the east of the city pool that's for sale.  Becca is going to take me, and one of our missionaries Moms, who asked about it, for a tour.  The older lady who lived here some ten or so years ago, once lived in our house, evidently after it was a wayward boys home, but before the Hills bought it in 1963. Can't wait. 

I saw this unusual rose bloom cycle stage on a hedge there.  How unusual is that?

 Some time that day I saw a comment by Edie on face book, she's Brittany's mother-in-law, about knowing a guy named Garrit Steenblik.  I went to college with him, and it turns out he was in High School student government with Edie.  I think he's the dark haired guy.

That morning we also got to go to Eva's graduation from Elementary school.  Here are some other well wishers.  The gal in white is Nell's darling friend Liz who has been helping with Penny when Nell's the most sick.  Nell keeps here home, when she feels a little better.

This is Eva as they are about to sing.  This is about a third of the group.

We can't believe how she has grown.

Nell is so amazing.

Afterward we went to Boss Retirement to make some adjustments in our portfolio.

Then we stopped at DI for a few minutes and I found a set of three of these Pyrex bowls.  I had never seen one, and thought they must be new because 1. They were perfect, and 2. They were sitting on the shelf, which doesn't happen with Pyrex.  Its usually picked off the cart when it comes out.  I risked it and bought them anyway, for a total of $4.50.  Later in the week I took them in to price them at the mall, and did some on line research and found out that they were made from 60-62, They came in a set of 3.  So I had an antique set that was perfect.  Not surprisingly, after I priced them $100, another dealer who collects Pyrex came in and offered me $80 in cash for the set ... I sold them to her for $70 and still feel guilty.

That night Dad and I did a session at the Payson temple, then we got to dress like this, except we had white booties over our shoes, and used different tools, as we cleaned the temple for two hours.  There were 20 of us, and there was a very special feeling, as you might imagine.

On Wednesday Dad had his on line Finnish lesson, then her worked in the yard trimming back bushes and weeding the garden. He got a lot done before the weather turned.  Meanwhile at work on Wednesday, you can imagine the fun of a hail storm when I work in a steel building. 

 After work I had these six cuties come over to help plan an activity for next week's Ward Family Picnic.

 Dad's practice was cancelled and he spent the evening doing a financial spread sheet to see how we're spending out retirement money.

Then we watched a couple of episodes of The Good Doctor, and ate Nootch. (Nutritional yeast on naked popcorn, its kind of cheesie)

On Thursday Dad had his regular temple shift, making it his third day at the temple for the week.  I took the van to work so I could put the newly reconstructed bookcase, we brought back from Texas, into the mall and filled it with goodies.

 That night it was my book club.  We read a Jane Austen knock-off, so I was happy.  Also, if you can see the glass platter on the table, its an old one of the SLC temple that Ann inherited from her grandmother.  She didn't know it was valuable, so I googled it, though I only found repros, but happened to see a sterling silver temple spoon that was about to end, and was selling for $15 on Ebay, so I bid and got it for $16.50.  They typically sell for around $40 to $45 at the mall ... so that was a little weird for me.

 Guess who went to Idaho?  Yep, of course, I always love cousin time.  Such a bunch of cuties.

 On Friday I went to Larry Taylor's funeral.  His wife Ginny was my Wednesday walking partner for years, though since we have gotten home from Finland she's not been able to walk, because of Larry's declining health and dementia.  It was a lovely funeral, and Ginny said if I give her a week, she'll be back to Wednesday walking.  I love this gal.

It was kind of cool to see this belt buckle that is made of all steel pennies from WWII, when they were using all the copper in the 'war machine'.  It was part of Larry's display.

As was their wedding picture, which I wanted to save.

Then I headed to Salt Lake to go to lunch with Nina.  We had expected Joyce to join us, but she had forgotten, so we had a great time having Mexican at Grandpa's favorite, La Cocina.  It was fun to run into my cousin Brian, when we were there.  When we walked in, I thought, that guy looks like my cousin Brent, but he was too young.  Yep, I asked him.

Dad spent the day doing yard work, and some laundry too.  What a keeper. 

This fun picture on the bathroom door reminds me of the Flying Tiger art, so that made me smile.

Also on Friday Dad saw an article about the Tab Choir coming to the Nordic countries, and since we are not hearing good news about our visas, he's kind of heart sick. (The church's lawyer talked to people in the Prime Minister's office in Finland, and no one wants to make a call on allowing senior couples to come, because they are all lame ducks, and feel the newly elected officials should make the decision.  The problem is that it normally takes 2 months for an uncomplicated residential visa to go through, and we are now 2.5 months out from our MTC date.  Yep, still waiting to see.)

That night I got stuck in very, very slow traffic coming down from Salt Lake, because of everyone leaving town for Memorial Day Weekend.  I met these three at Sizzler, a good half an hour late.  They were so nice and chatted while I ate.  

We then headed to the Hale Center Theater to see Tuck Everlasting.  I enjoyed the book, but found the play dragged a bit.  Though I did enjoy the song about the bad guy wearing a yellow suit. 

First thing on Saturday, Dad and I went out and cleared the balcony of a year's worth of blown leaves, which filled half a construction size garbage bag ... yeah, but my favorite is the weeds that were growing in the rain gutters.  How funny is that? (The decomposing leaves evidently make a nice composted soil.)

 We rewarded ourselves with breakfast outside.  Our second time to use the balcony since it was finished late last fall.  The only other time we came out was to watch a wonderful lightening storm last fall.

Breakfast with a view.

 I found the perfect place for my new yo yo quilt.

Then while Dad  mowed the lawn, did some lawn edging, and weed wacking, I painted dots on the garden house floor.  I also painted a table, and added blue diamonds that I'll be using in the garden house before too long.

 Next we drove north to meet up with my brother Bruce and his wife Dianne.  They are now eating a plant based diet, for the most part, though they do eat meat on a occasion.  It was fun to compare notes.

Of course we stopped at the DI in Centerville, where I found this box of some kind of cards in the collectibles area.  I pulled out one card to see what they were and found this...

We later checked on line to see how many cards this kind of box holds ... 3,000 and I picked the one for Brittney's brother-in-law.  How funny is that?  Spencer says he can get it signed for me .... I told him I got it for him, and he can get it signed for himself.  We're still laughing.  And if your interested you can go buy the other 2,999 cards for only $25, that's a bit less than a penny a card ...  I paid the premium price of $1 for mine. 

Today, when I was getting church I saw this dress in the closet.  I bought it second hand in Finland and it was four inches from closing across my chest.  I liked it so much I brought it home, yes, hope does spring eternal.  I was thrilled to get to wear it today ... I guess 14 months of vegetarianism has done something, though not as quickly as I'd have wished.  Our meetings were lovely as always.  

We heard Becca's old Junior High School friend, Beci Baguley, nee Eversole, speak in church.  Her precocious four year old son was the youth speaker.  It was pretty cute ... He said "Once there was a boy named Joseph Smith, part of his family went to one church and part of them went to another, but he didn't know what church he should go to.  He was reading the bible and it said he should ask God.  So he prayed and asked God, and God and Jesus came and told him to join the church of Jesus Christ ... Amen.  Then he came back and sat on the pew in front of us with his grandma.  She was at the other end though, so he was able to get on the floor and take of his tie, and swing it around under the bench and smack our ankles and feet with it. It was all I could do to keep from laughing.  Kids are the best.

So when we got home from church we went through our Come Follow Me lesson, then we watched, 'The Setting of the First Vision'.  We're really enjoying learning about church history in this set of TV documentaries that BYU TV showed at one time.

After a nap, we got a call from Brittany and enjoyed talking to her about the room assignments she's doing for our Palm Springs trip in July, among other things. Then Spencer face timed Dad, and they could hear each other talking and talked back and forth.  We loved it.  We also talked to Darby and Trevor later, and watched the family Marco Polo videos.  It made for a lovely afternoon.

We are also very happy to hear the things that you are all doing for each other.  We love you all and are so grateful that you love and serve each other.  Its very gratifying as parents.  We are so proud of you all.

Yep and while we were enjoying our day, the wind was blowing like mad, and breaking off more branches.

Emily kept making us sushi rice bowls while we were in Texas and we loved them, so here's our version, complete with yum-yum sauce.

...and just for fun, Ben says hello.