So here we are back to our normal perkinsperhe blog. It seems crazy. On Monday, as I was writing last weeks blog I heard a huge crash, and jumped up and ran out onto the balcony to see this is my front yard.
I went down later, and everyone was OK, but the car stopped about ten inches shy of the fence. My heart pounded for several hours afterwards. It make me wonder about people who have PST.
I did work on unpacking, once the blog was finally done, and found these two plaid pillow covers that I had brought home, after having them in our apartment in Espoo. I thought they looked nice with the plaid log cabin quilt that Grandpa Carlo used in the care center before he passed away.
All of the guest beds had been stripped, so I made them up. See there's even a polka dots Scottie Dog at the foot of the bed.
On Tuesday, while Dad was working on adapting the cabinet above the kitchen sink to install the Finnish drying rack, the Vests surprised us. It was so nice to visit with them. They served with us on our first mission to Finland, going out with us on the same flight, and coming home on the same flight. You may recall that we found out that Rowene is Dad's cousin on the last day of our first mission.
It was a lot of work for him to put in the racks because the cupboard was wider, and not as deep. He did a great job, and I think it looks nice. Of course the racks are great, we loved them in Finland both times, and even tried to get the racks at IKEA after our first mission. That's why Dad was so happy you all gave him that huge suitcase, because it was tall enough to fit the racks this time.
While he had the paint out, I went over the nicks and scratches on the cabinets that always occur around knobs etc. I was surprised how much better it looks after the touch up. We were expecting the Moes for dinner the next day, so we were trying to get the kitchen looking presentable, as we were in the midst of changing out the Pioneer Woman's bright color scheme and bringing down the red and white that I have had in our Master suit since we built it 6 years ago. I love the colors together, but it does not make for a restful bedroom.
We took Subways to the Kews, so that we could get together, for lunch that day. They have been very, very careful about staying away from people. We enjoyed catching up, though talking about their son Christian's passing, and upcoming funeral was emotional, we remembered them coming and doing the same after Ben's death.
That night we went over to pick up our mail, and our new bread mixer from Trevor and Nell's. They had let us know about a great deal on line, and since I had become hooked on the bread mixer in our missionary apartment, we were on board. We got a chance to visit shortly, and saw several of their newly acquired art pieces. I loved these four, especially. Eva did the upper left hand corner work. She is so amazingly talented. We loved seeing the kids too.
My cousin Beki posted this picture on Facebook, I had never seen. It is Thomas Benjamin Clark's home. I wish I knew what the address was, though I imagine it has been torn down, since it would have been built in the 1850's or so.
This is me on Wednesday still unpacking and sorting. Of course a few things had been broken in our luggage, so here I am with my E6000 putting Humpty together again. Of course the tin was not repairable. Another tin, right next to it, brought home a demitasse cup and saucer safely, this one evidently took a direct hit.
We had a great vegan meal with the Moes that night. Its so fun when your friends are also eating the plant based whole food way. They seemed to enjoy the offering, West African peanut chickpea curry. Its one of Dad's and my favorites. Then we tortured them by playing hand and foot with what turned out to be incomplete decks. Oops.
On Thursday we went over to Treasures. I will be back at work this week, and needed to check out my booths, and find out what I need to do to be prepared for the new protocols.
I thought this store display by Kathy was cute, and it was fun to see a few items of mine included.
We stopped by the White Willow, where Ben Heuer is soon to be married, to celebrate with Rolle and Kiki, our new basement apartment renters. If you haven't heard, he's a Finn, and she grew up in Kansas with Elder Staggs, who was in the office with us as an Assistant for 6 months.
We thought that the cake with its pine cones, greenery and blueberries was very Finnish, and beautiful.
We were thrilled with an invitation to visit with Davin and his kids. Everyone wore masks, and we enjoyed it tremendously. I showed him a picture of an eye shaped arch with the moon looking though it, making it look like an eye ball. He recognized the arch, and when they all went to Moab the next day they sent pictures of the arch. That was so cool.
He also showed me this cool surrealistic mineral. I guess when this mineral is melted and then allowed to cool it forms into these squarish crystals. I think its just fascinating. I love it when they share cool rock hounding and mineral kinds of stuff.
Darby told us that she was meeting our cousin Jason Larsen for lunch, before he moves to California to work with his brother Erik in his somewhat new solar panel business. Its called Lar Sun. I thought that was clever. You may recall that Erik had a cup cake business back when they were the thing and even appeared on one of the cupcake shows a couple of times, and moved to India to help a man there to set up a cupcake business for a year at one time. What an adventure.
Anyway, Jason has been working with Darby at Micron, though he was in management. He's excited to go and work with Erik. We wish him the best.
We went to Christian's funeral on Friday, at a mortuary in Payson. There were about 20 people in all, spread out over a large room. I thought it was a really nice funeral. His two children, 16 and 21 had planned it and his sister, two friends and his Dad spoke. It really was a celebration of an out of the ordinary life. He rented our basement apartment at one time, I don't know if any of you remembered that. Well, I am sure he is at peace now.
We had to pick up a few groceries, after getting a new windshield in the van, so I picked up this giant cookie for one of my former young women, who I particularly enjoy who had just turned 18.
Saturday morning we met up in Provo at Guru's with Britt and Becca. Britt was in town with Charlie for a Dance conference. It was interesting to hear how careful the conference is being handled. Parents are not allowed to see their children in the workshops, which Charlie was in, but get to see videos of them. For the performances of the older girls, I think one parent could watch. Charlie is shown here with a good friends and dance mate.
Charlie's friend's mother, and her older sister, who also dances, is included in this photo. on the left by Charlie.
Charlie will be doing a solo performance in March in Idaho that we had hoped to go and attend. Its unlikely that we will be able to, because of restrictions, so Charlie, who has been working on the program, ran through the whole of it, with the exception of some flips and cartwheels. The tables are so widely spaced, that there was plenty of room for our own private preview.
Dad had put together our new English Cottage, style chairs (recliners) the day before, then I got to Scotch guard them ... two cans worth. The fabric is sturdy, we are just concerned about light color. The chairs were super cheap, like $250 each, the ones we bought for our room last time, that are now in the library, were $350 ... I guess it pays to be out of step with the current fashion, because they also turned out to be massage chairs. LOL. Of course Scotch's logo is their own personal plaid.
Here are some pictures of the above cabinet new looks. You can see that besides bringing down the red and whites from our bedroom, I also brought down my vintage plaid picnic tins from my craft room where they used to hold craft supplies. I think this might be my favorite incarnation of our kitchen here.
After noticing plaids all week, I laughed when I walked out of the garage and noticed the plaid welcome mat for the apartment. I have no idea where it come from, but it seemed perfect for this week.
Here are the other two views of our newly redified and plaidfied kitchen.
We were meeting Becca and Britt for dinner that night, so we left a little early to check out Trader Joe's. We are trying to find some of the vegan/vegetarian stuff we got used to in Finland. Also we've missed their triple ginger snaps. But the Kews had shared some thin little triple gingersnaps Trader Joe's has started making. They are just as good and have 11 calories each. I can get behind that. As you see we had to wait in line to get into the store. Its been interesting.
When we met at the restaurant, they had this balloon sculpture. Brittany said they are a thing now. How funny, a bit of American culture that we were not aware of. It felt a little funny, being out of touch with my own culture.
This place was a temporary pop up for another restaurant, called the Communal, because it was Valentine's eve. Unfortunately the menu of the pop up was set, and it was definitely not vegan. They were nice when we explained and said that the restaurant next door had lots of vegan options.
And that's how we all ended up at the Black Sheep Cafe eating a version of Navajo Tacos. Yum
I loved Charlies cute piggy buns.
I borrowed this cute official picture of Charlie at the completion of her work shop from Britt's Insta.
Today Dad and I got to go to church. That was nice. We sat every other row, and family groups were separated by huge spaces. I love that we got to sing. In Finland we did not, so even singing in masks was delightful to me
Dad said the vegan sushi was beautiful (Trader Joe's vegan cream cheese) and I needed to take a picture.
Here is Dad in his new robe. With the lighter chairs, even with the Scotch guard, I knew he'd need to put on a robe before sitting in his chair after his runs, while he gets up the strength to shower. The funny thing is that, besides being Pendleton wool, and needing to be dried clean ... (I'm counting on washing it in cold water) ...
Its also plaid.
and look what I found in the final suitcase ... yep. I brought home about 5 wool plaid blankets. I ran across this one after the rest were packed. So I had forgotten it.
Then last of all we had a little Zoom meeting with the two senior couples who are heading out to Finland this month and next month. The crazy thing is that both couples were supposed to have served with us. It would have been so great. This is the Mottishaws, Dad served with him on his mission, and I went to high school with him. His wife is the sister of a woman who lived in the Geneva Heights Seventh ward. (Cindy Walton) We had been so excited to get to serve with them. Alas.
And the de St. Aubins, who were originally supposed to come in July.
Well, its been a great week. I am loving getting some projects done, and look forward to more. I just wish I had had this much energy when my children were young. Hope you all have a great week.
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