Blanketed with Blessings

Good morning Monday.  We met Ashley and her favorite blanket at the Red Cross Donation Center in Orem with the object of donating platelets with her.

We did have a few hurdles between us and donating, Dad cleared his hurdles, but I tripped and fell twice, so to speak.  Dad's issue was that his heart beats per minute were too slow, at 42, so they had him run in place in the hall until he got it up enough to donate.  Here he is having the hose hooked up to the blood river that is the flow from his veins.

Mine is another story. First of all, I was denied the opportunity to do platelets, because of having antibodies to the Little c antigen, that I developed during Becca's birth and that then caused problems during my pregnancy with Spencer.  I guess if someone has Little c, and receives platelets with Little c antibodies, it can cause a reaction, that often ends in death. 

So on to hurdle number two.  The phlebotomist chose three possible veins, and went with one I've not had anyone try before.  She found it too rolly, and after several pricks, and maneuvers, wiggling the needle around, ouch, she called over another gal who was much more gentle, but had no more luck.  She said I should come back and try another time, that perhaps one of those other veins would yeild.  She also pointed out that the 1/10 of a pint they were able to get had two great big clots.  Hmmmm.   

So I went to Trader Joes and the Antique Mall, while these two lived the platelet party dream. Here they all all snuggled in for movies and chats and snacks.

I got daffodils at Trader Joes, though.

I also stopped at Hobby Lobby and got the swirly (red one) stencil to go with some stamps, as I was considering doing a design on our bedroom wall, instead of wallpaper, because I had not been able to find the paper I had put away before our mission. Here you see I was practicing on some poster board.

On Tuesday we went to get our second shots.  There are a lot of National Guard people volunteering there.  These two are showing off their unit patches.  I find this individuality in the army to be so interesting.  I also thought it was interesting that they just have a big ol swath of velcro on their sleeves so they can pull patches on and off easily. 

Here we are waiting our fifteen minutes after our shots ... do you think the guy behind us might be Bernie?  I mean its indoors, he wouldn't need his mittens.

On Wednesday Dad headed to Darby's while I stayed home to get ready for a St. Patty's party.  I had reacted badly to the vaccine, and hadn't slept well, but managed to pull off the blankets and get at it anyway.  He spent the day putting up blankets of insulation to keep up with code, and keep her soon to be apartment, nice and snug,  Fortunately for Dad, Jeff is working on finishing his own basement, so he is up to code, which has made it easy for Dad to do it all right.   Thanks Jeff.

It was a lovely afternoon, and our girl Darby got to give Dallas a little exercise.

I had found the green banner at the Dollar Store, and spent some of the day finding, printing off, and cutting out St Patty's picture for the banner.

I worked on putting the table together, including folding napkins into bowtie shapes.

I didn't have a green tablecloth for the event, and though I considered using my Penny Quilt Blanket instead, I ended up using a green check sheet.

Just as my guests arrived I had rainbows again.  This picture was from last Sunday, because I didn't get a picture of the ones on Wednesday, but it was pretty magical.

I spent a lot of the day cooking.  Here you can see the opening course.  Its hard to tell but the clover rolls have green food coloring.  The soup is cream of broccoli with potato. 

Course two was a green salad, course three was a green sherbet to cleanse the palate, with a shamrock cookie, course four was Calcannon, an Irish dish that is basically mashed potatoes with Kale and lots of butter, a vegan version in this case.  The English call it Bubble and Squeak.  The fifth course was pesto pasta with cannellini beans, and we finished up with cake.

We had a great evening with the members of the Elder quorum presidency.  We're shown here with President Kenton Phillips and his wife Cheryl.

Counselors Jay Best, and Logan Peterson are shown here on a house tour.

They were having fun celebrating at the Summers house as well.  Reagan was a little disappointed when her leprechaun trap did not net one. 

These kidkins in Texas had fun dressing up for St.Patty's at school.

We woke up Thursday to our world blanketed in snow again ... it ended up snowing like this three times this week, though each time it melted off quickly.

Dad was back up to Darby's that day, and finished up framing the wall on the east side.

I worked that day, but made most of the food that morning, along with setting the table.  Dad and I both got home after 6 and were able to pull off the dinner with time to spare. Here we have Andrew Hale, Liesel Allen, Dad, me, Will Hall and Gwyneth Allen. All but Liesel were missionaries together in Finland.  Liesel is Gwyneth's twin sister, and served in Denmark.

Will was impressed with the size of our toilet, evidently.

More house touring.

On Friday we drove to SLC where I dropped Dad off at Darby's again, while I did some serious junking.  When I went back to get him I was impressed with the beauty of the flower arrangement that Dallas (the man) had given to Darby for Valentines.  We finally managed to stop at IKEA and we bought new pans.  It only took 6 weeks to manage it. 

Dad and I finished off the day stopping in Spanish at Cubby's for dinner, where we got to say hi to Ian and got a big hug.  They were crazy busy, and I was surprised he was allowed out of the kitchen at all.  Dinner was great, and Ian was so right about a firmly cooked bean burger, yum!. 

On Saturday, I puttered around the house, while Dad ran up to Darby's again for a lesson in using a concrete nail gun with Dallas, that will make it easier and faster for Dad to anchor Darby's walls to the floor.  Then he went to Jeff and Robin's to paint basement walls with Jeff.  They are on a deadline, with their carpet scheduled, so they were glad for a little help.

I met him and the Moes for dinner in American Fork at Mi Ranchito, where Ben always used to love to go.  I never go there, or see the Tostada Grande on their menu without thinking fondly of him.

Afterward we met up at Heuer's again to play games.  It was our first time to play golf, or under nine, in person.  Its the game we have been playing with the Smiths on facetime for a year. Jeff's Mom, Luceil won, she had the most amazing luck.  But she is such a great lady, she definitely deserves it.  It was fun to get together again.

We stayed home from our church so that we could see Sister Kari Moss' homecoming talk.  It really was an extraordinary message.  She talked about three different baptism experiences she had.  They were all unique, and she shared attributes of Christ that she learned from each of the people involved.

Here she is with her companion, Sister Larson, at the baptism for her friend Lemar.

Here I am with her last December, along with Sister Kervinen, and her companion on the far right, Sister Armstong.

Emily posted some pictures from the last month today, and I thought I would save a few here.  This is Bekie, after gathering eggs using her great, great grandmother, Ida Perkins' egg basket.  Its kind of a miracle that I still had it and knew where it was.  

This is Sam with Benny and the wiener dog, Bronco, he waited ten years to get.  Emily's not really a fan of animals, so Sam the animal lover has had a lot of smaller pets in that time, like turtles and birds and the like.

And I just can't resist saving this picture of their little family snuggling on the couch in coats and blankets during the recent Snowpocolipse, as the snow storms that blanketed Texas last month are now being termed.

It was also fun to see the pictures of Charlie's dance program on Insta.  She had done a preview for us when they were here last month, and indeed, there were no extra people allowed to watch the performances.  Alas, great pictures, though.

Today I ran across this charming Karl Larson painting that reminds me of my own decor.  I so love his work and I am in the process of framing a couple of his prints, that I bought and hung in Finland, but that I brought home in a tube, to save space and weight in my luggage, especially since I am not a fan of the minimalist Scandinavian frames they were in.

I made a new recipe for dinner that was yummy.  Its a baked sweet potato which was blanketed with chick peas in barbecue sauce and vegan ranch dressing.  It was supposed to have an avocado too, but the one I had saved turned out to be one of those that was picked to early and is rubbery.  We loved it anyway. 

... and speaking of blankets, I thought I would share the room updates I did in preparation for the house tours on Wednesday and Thursday.  This is the bride room ... with a favorite blanket I have had for years, but never had a place to use.

The boxed up bridal collection was finally released.

I finished up the craft room on Monday, and after our shots on Tuesday, Dad hauled the mattress up, and put on the new zippered mattress cover by himself, while I was sleeping off some of the effects of my shot.  I of course found this lovely antique red and white quilt blanket to cover the bed ... along with my German Good morning and Good Night redwork pillow covers.

I plan to cover the little four drawer set in plaid paper, but that is for another day. It feels so good to be finally done with this project.  I have yet to catalogue where everything is, but I have already found and used at least a half a dozen things in other projects this week, as well as doing a little sewing for the first time in years.

Last of all is the new blankets and bedding for our bed.  Happily, I was finally able to find the wallpaper and coordinating fabric on Tuesday,  I made the new pillowcases on Wednesday, so everything was ready for house touring.  I was so thrilled to find the wallpaper.  Though I had even thought of buying new wallpaper, and had, as you saw, worked up a stamped/stenciled design, I really just wanted to use the Laura Ashley wallpaper.  So happy me. I really have been blanketed with blessings this week. 

I thought I'd share some of my other blanketing arrangements since December of 2015 when we finished up the attic bedroom.  Much love.  I hope you are blanketed with love and blessing, and not snow,  this coming week.