Hearts and Trials

It was a wonderful week of love, celebration, frustration and trials.

It all started on a high note, as we met with the directors of the Mosida Handcart Trek Site.

We seemed to hit it off, and not entirely because the two men had the same taste in shoes.  They welcomed us to the team, and gave us a tour of the site, including the air conditioned lodge which they assured us we would come to love.  They drove us over much of the handcart trail, pointing out the camp sites.  The fun thing for me was the frost on the weeds, that was catching the sunlight, and twinkled like millions of fireflies.  It was stunning.

Because of a last minute change in our plans for the day, I had to work.  We were planning for a Valentines dinner, five of our missionaries who are newly wed or nearly wed, including three partners.  I made the minestrone soup before going to work, I had set the table before hand as well, but Dad went shopping, and cooked the lasagnas, made the salad, and added the silverware to the table setting.

Becky Christensen from our ward, was having a Valentines bake sale, so he stopped by to get these beautiful cookies.

When I got home from work, I put some of them in the truck that serves as the centerpiece, and on the B and B plates at each place setting.

I found the two little red two tired servers at work that day, on which we served the garlic bread.

Here we are at dinner. We had a lovely time with them all, what a great way to spend one's Valentine's Day, especially since in Finland its called Friends Day.

On Tuesday I put together the small gifts I would have done on Valentine's Day, had I not needed to work.  Dad ran them around to our ministering people, while I went and got my hair cut.

We were also cleaning up after our dinner the night before and I noticed the stack of books and videos that had been misplaced before we took Emily and Sam's Christmas basket to Texas back in October.  Yeah, its been sitting my fridge for a while.  So I decided to put together a package for Emily's family, and get rid of all my unused Valentine's candy too.  I decorated it for Valentines, since I had all that out still from making the ministering gifts. We mailed it along with some cards and small gifts for Dallas' upcoming birthday.

Then we drove to Salt Lake to meet Dad's two best friends from High School, John Boren, far left and Clark Sevy top right.  John and Janet have married since just after High School.  Clark and Kimberly have been married for 2 years, Clark's wife Margaret passed away six years ago.  The fun thing is that Kimberly was living in our stake, and was married to the bishop of the ward that Dad was assigned to when he was on the High Council before our first mission. They have just received a mission call to serve at a girl's camp for the Salt Lake City area up in the Heber Valley.  They will be one of 80 couples called to serve there over the summer. I foresee some friendships being made there.

It was fun to have this wonderful tribute post that Becca and you all did on Mother's day in 2020 show up in my face book feed.  Of course its extra fun because it includes a video of my children singing our family song during our first mission and includes Ben too. Of course Britt and Ashley are missing, but they had tributes in the main body of the message. 

Also in my feed was another fun shot off our Chalie's Insta page.

I worked on Wednesday, but had Pat come into take the last two hours so we could head to SLC where we had dinner at Cafe Rio, before ....

Getting to see One for the Pot at the Hale Center Theater.  Darby had gotten the tickets for Dad as one of the myriad of Thank Yous for doing her basement.  It was hilarious, and we loved it.

On Thursday morning I took a bath, and while in the tub Dad went out running.  When he got home and was stretching in the entry way, he heard water falling, and headed to the kitchen where he saw it pouring from the ceiling.  He ran to the second floor where it was pouring down into the bathroom there.  With visions of me dead in the tub, and the water overflowing he ran up the final flight of stairs, yelling, "What's going on?"  Well, the pressure release valve on the water heater had failed, pouring out the contents of the water heater at such a rate that the emergency drain was overwhelmed.  

He turned off the top floor water, and then cleaned up the flood.  In the end he was able to buy a new valve and install it himself, cause yeah, he's that guy.  He counts it as a blessing that he walked in while it was actively flowing, as there was very, very little damage to the two ceilings involved, and it never reached the basement apartment at all.  

I had asked him to help me load this cubby cupboard the night before, to replace the sell of another cupboard, and he said he was too tired.  However after the flood, and with adrenaline flowing in our bodies, we made short work of getting it into the van. I redid this side of my booth to include it while at work that day.

I had to laugh at how one dealer used this mannequin to point out his new outdoor booths at the back of the building. 

After work we drove up to Saratoga Springs to deliver some birthday surprises to Dallas.

Darby said he was very surprised.

The license plate is from Montana, 1955 ... it probably older than his parents. 

Then on Friday Emily messaged me these pictures of the kids with their Christmas.2  package.

That day we drove to Salt Lake to have lunch with Laura Gray Bray and her new husband, Steven.  They were married the beginning of February, and are back from their honey moon, packing up her stuff for her move to Oregon.  It was fun to meet him, he's a remarkable man. They are both in their mid seventies, and definitely worthy of some goodness in their lives.

Meanwhile  Van was up skiing up in Park City with his folks. Isn't this just a brilliant method?

I learned first thing on Saturday morning that Trish Otis, who got me into dealing antiques back in 1995 or so, passed away.  The family picture shows what she looked like when we moved to Orem in 1991.  She taught me so much, and was always so fun to be around.  

Ashley posted this picture of herself and friends painting something.  I could never figure out what it was, but she's definitely having fun.

More fun was had when Dad started talking about what we needed to do to outfit ourselves for our upcoming pioneer work days, firesides, hoedowns and treks.  I told him we needed to go through the pioneer costumes in the basement before we bought anything.  He said I'd probably need to buy a sunbonnet, and he needed a cowboy hat.  Well, he was right about the cowboy hat, but I had 9 sun bonnets to choose from.

I did run to DI and found him a vest, myself a petticoat, and a blouse.  I found about 6 skirts between my closet and the costume box, so I think I'm good.  I will need to add a ruffle to the petticoat, shorten the costume skirts and add sleeves to one of the shirts. 

Spencer came down to work with his Dad on making replacement doors for their bathroom cabinets.  They had stripped the cabinet and found the doors to be MDF, so they had fun working together making new ones. Dad said he hadn't used his router in 10 years.

Today we went to church, then Dad had a meeting, and I went on a ministering visit to Abigail.  She shared her chickens and her Easter colored eggs.  Note that this egg is the same color as her fingernails.  She is so cute and fun.  I just love her.

How pretty are the eggs?

When I got home Dad was watching 17 Miracles, about the Martin Willie Handcart Company.  This is the actor who played Levi Savage, and the man himself. Of course I was crying in a way that rivaled the flood of 3 days before.

Dad had to check and see how he was related, but he wasn't other than through me. (He is actually 7th cousins 6 times removed from Levi Savage)  So he had to do me one better ....

He found that he was also a fifth cousin to one of the other Captains of a Hundred, so there!!!

Then he pulled up the schedule for the Firesides we will be involved in, so he could get them on his calendar, and thought you might enjoy seeing some of the set up for the earlier part of our new mission. We have 12 firesides/ hoedowns in the next 4 months from Kaysville to Delta. The firesides are to introduce wards and stakes to their upcoming treks with us over the summer.

We also will be having a couple of training sessions each month through the spring, as well as some work sessions to get the ranch ready for the summer guests. They are so lucky to get Dad, when I was ministering to Abigail, she said she was stunned at how strong Dad is when he came to help her husband's folks when they moved a month ago.

I think this week is a good mix of fun, reunions, parties, worries, sorrows and mourning.  I hope that you have been able to both endure and celebrate this week as well.

And just in case you thought we missed the news that Finland beat Russia in the final Ice Hockey game at the Olympics, for their first gold medal in Hockey ever, we did not ... Now that's a joyful story  with a painful back story, I mean Russian and Finnish relations.  You can bet the Finns are feeling pretty exited, but as you see they try not to let it show!!  Did you see that one Andy?