Another week of gaining experience here on the planet. On Monday I took off for the morning, attending my We-Can meeting where we did four different service projects ... here are Kathy and I as we stuff birthday kits for the food bank, I think we did about 35 of them. We also cut and tied grocery bags to make long strands that can are being 'crocheted' into sleeping mats for the homeless.
Here are some of the ladies as we tie a quilt for the Church's humanitarian center, our fourth project was coloring pages to make counting books and ABC books for education kits for the humanitarian center.
Afterward I stopped and visited my friend Carol, who is in the group but was not feeling good enough to come. She's lovely and fun to visit with.
Dad, meanwhile, was doing service for me. He moved the garden cabinet in the garage to better use space, and mowed and fertilized the lawn.
In the afternoon I put out the Mary Engelbreit fairy garden stuff, I got last Christmas with my Christmas money from Joyce. The house has an electric cell and lights up at night.
I also reworked the Elf Garden my art group made for me when Ben died. I planted some flowers and moved the fairy garden house I'd replaced, into this space.
We are loving how bright out rainbows are this year without the crappy vinyl that was over the stained glass window.
Someone special made the trek up the stairs for a visit that night when he came to get Dad's golf clubs to go golfing with work associates.
On Tuesday Dad put his Father's day gift together, and tilled this garden box, which I planted after we ran some errands.
Our first errand was meeting the Broughs for dinner in Lehi. It was great to catch up, since its been 6 months since our last get together.
Then we headed to Highland to bring these early readers to our Reagan who is going great guns on reading this summer.
How much does this little one love her Daddy?
Next we headed to Pleasant Grove where we dropped off a piece of Masonite for the wall mural we've commissioned Eva to paint for our Ben Memorial Cottage.
How cute is this sweetie pie.
When I got home and was just finishing up the garden, our YW President, Cheryl, stopped by with a book (See it under my arm) to use in my lesson on Sunday.
After she left I walked out front to see the lights that had come on in the fairy garden.
I walked on Wednesday morning with my friend Ginny, who has missed walked for the last 10 months, as her husband was so ill, she didn't like to leave him. Now that he's passed away, we get to walk again. She brought her granddaughter, who is Eva's age, who I've known since she and Eva were 4 and Ginny and I took them to the park to play and picnic one day. She loved our Turkey Vultures ...
Ginny seems so happy and bright, and she says she is just grateful that Larry isn't hurting, confused and miserable anymore. She's delightful.
Its just fun to see that her 11 year old granddaughter is as tall as she is now.
After work on Wednesday, I was off to our Mutual activity, doing chalk art. Here are some of my favorites. Dad, of course, was off singing in Salt Lake.
At work on Thursday I worked in some of the art that I'd found junking last week. The painting on the right is a copy of the painting on the left. I thought he did a very nice job.
This painting is from a photograph taken of the still standing home of George Washington's ancestors in England. I thought it was charming, and since we are related to GW I may bring it home ... we'll see.
Dad had worked at the temple all day, then had gone to Home Depot to pick up the windows that had finally come in, after a full month of delays.
On Friday morning, after walking, I stopped at a garage sale that was being run by the daughter of a retired antique dealer. She always has something good. This time it was a tiny door and an equally tiny little dresser. I didn't have money with me, so when I went home to get some, Dad came back and loaded up. I was just sure the dresser was going to fall off, Dad promised it wouldn't and he was right.
This is what Dad did on Friday.
Becca had agreed to take me and one of our missionary's mom, Rosalind Fielding to see a fun old house for sale here in Payson. Her shoes match the living room so I wanted this picture.
This is the front of the house, which is hidden from the street. The house is about 1600 sf and the lot's is 1.4 acres. It is priced at 400g, so I figured it was really, really nice inside ... nope ... just a really crazy owner.
Here's our group on the patio off the 2nd floor family room, Dad, Becca, Maddie, Cameron's sister, Roselind, his mother, and Kaitlyn Atkinson, Cameron's girl friend, and also a returned Finnish missionary. The thing I loved best about the house is that the rooms were crazy tiny. The living room was like 12 by 12, and the dining room was about 10 by 10. In all there were 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, dining room, family room, parlor, theater room (about 8 by 8) and a converted screened porch. The yard was amazing ... its mostly sloped down in the back, but there's gathering space under a huge tree, a gazebo, fabulous statuary (he was a set designer in Hollywood) an exotic bird house, a chicken coop, a horse barn, fountains, a large pond with big gold fish ... and on and on ... Dad said he was too tired to deal with all the remodeling it would take, even if it were reasonably priced.
This is a porch he built off the screen porch after its conversion.
He never actually got around to putting in the spiral staircase he wanted to attach to the widow's walk ...
It was all so charming, definitely the kind of place that Aunt Julie would love ... alas, its not to be for me.
Then we headed to another house that Rosalind had found in Payson on the Internet. This old cottonwood is amazing. Its like the size of the Redwoods.
This house was built about the same time as the other, but is 2800 sf, and is all recently renovated, on 2 acres, and its beautiful inside. It was virually the same price as the other. I played with opening up the great room to a bed room to make a 30 foot by 15 foot room for gathering ... alas, it too was impractical, and I didn't love it. 5 br, normal size and 1 bath.
That night we got together with the Kews to eat at the Oregano, which is housed in the old TGIF building in Provo. The food was amazing, but sadly it was their second to last night in business. Oh no. The waitress did, however, tell us that the chef is going to be doing a restaurant in PG, so we'll have to keep our eyes opened ...
On Saturday Dad and I started at 6:30 and loaded the van with vintage goodness for a flea market at Treasures. Then Dad headed to clean the church for an hour before heading up for a Daddy-Daughter date shoveling sand for 2 hours. Yeah Dad.
They managed to move about half of it. And guess what our girl Darby has done?! She's quit smoking and has been smoke free for three weeks. What a great job!!
Then Dad went to see the Beehive Statesman Barbershop Show. They are celebrating their 75th year as a chorus ...
Because of their anniversary they had pictures of former shows and quartets ... here is Dad and his quartet...
and another of Grandpa Carlo with his quartet.
This is a picture taken at a district competition at the Salt Palace. I think the background is interesting, with the assembly hall, then the temple, the Church Office building and Hotel Utah all stacked behind them. Dad is the third from the right on the front row, and Grandpa Carlo is the 5th from the right on the fifth row.
Meanwhile, this was my view.
How funny are these characters? Both are dealers at the mall.
Here's one of the stack of five Pyrex casseroles, without lids, that I brought in last week. Julie, our Pyrex expert, had a fit when someone brought it up to buy it for the 10 buck price tag I had on it ... turns out its rare and is worth 100 ... she's never seen one and initially thought it was more rare than it proved to be. She was really suffering and I was really laughing. I paid two bucks for it, so I was happy with the sale price.
After Dad came and helped me load out, he told me that Katriina Adams, our soon to be Broadstone caretaker, had called and wanted to bring her Mom to see the house.
Here is her mother, Maija-Liisa, who is the sister of a missionary that Dad served with in Finland. Her father was also a Finnish missionary and brought home a Finnish Bride, and later served a term as the American Ambassador to Finland ... yeah that! Her mom seemed to love the house as much as she did, so it was fun to show them around.
They were both excited about the stained glass windows so I showed them this picture we had taken in the parlor about a half hour before they came ... I guess the light likes the picture I hung on the door this week. Its the one I got in Texas last month. We've never seen a full circle of light before.
Today I had my lesson, so I got up at 5 to finish up my outline ... the lesson was on Love and how Christ's words "If ye love me keep my commandments" is really a circle of love ... one arrow goes from Him to us, because he loves us and wants us to be happy, he gives us the plan of happiness, that, if we follow it, means we have the best possible life ... then the arrow that goes back from us, around up to Him is our obedience to Him because we not only love him, we trust that his plan will make us happy and we respect and honor him in believing him as well.
After church we came home and did our Come Follow Me, then Dad headed off to a Finnish Mission Reunion Planning committee meeting in Bountiful. We had dinner when he got home then headed to Pleasant Grove ....
Because this amazing young man was ordained to the office of a priest by his father. When we walked in the house, I could just feel the spirit and was so proud of Scott for this choice. Later when I sat by Nell I could feel the spirit even more strongly, so that I couldn't keep from silently crying and I realized that what I was feeling was the spirit that Nell has invited to abide with her during her painful reaction to the chemo she is going through. After the ordination, when the men from the ward, and the Grows had left, we had the beautiful opportunity to participate with them in their Come Follow Me study. It was beautiful.
We are so thankful for the joy that family brings. We love you are, and are so proud of the many good things you are all doing. We are looking forward to our reunion in California next month. We love you all so very, very much. Keep up your good works. xoxoxo
No comments:
Post a Comment