Amazon Women I Know

This week started with this picture on Facebook, to celebrate National Sibling day.  Becca took a picture of this photo from her scrapbooks.  Its one of my favorites, and its hard to believe that it was taken in 1989, two years before we moved to Orem.

Monday found Dad and Aunt Karen touristing in NYC, because the cost of flights home on Sunday is ridiculous.

Radio City Music Hall.

Views from a walk in Central Park.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints temple there.

With Dad in front.

I worked on Monday, and then went to Barb's sister Donelle's house to look at some antiques she is selling.  The main thing I went to see was this while desk that belonged to Barb's grandmother.  Donelle inherited it when her mother passed away, and she had it in the garage intending to have it striped and refinished.  She found the cost of the work to be prohibitive, and it never happened.  Lucky me.  I first saw it in Bettylou's house in the early 1990's, and I loved it.  The family calls it the monstrosity, and I was thrilled to get a chance to buy it, although I already have in this house a total of four drop leaf desks already.  I have decided to take the drop leaf desk I bought with part of my inheritance from my mother to the antique mall to sell it, then I will put this in its place, and paint the fireplace mantel in there (That I got from my sister Julie) to balance out the white desk.  Dad and I had already talked about painting it, because its a dark oak color and the rest of the wood in the room is a medium oak.  Yep, you can tell I have over thought this acquisition. 

With Dad back on Tuesday and my left arm so much better, we decided to try our hand at peal and stick wallpaper.  Its a William Morris pattern that we bought just before I broke my arm, in fact it came after I broke my arm, so we've been waiting.  Dad actually says he never wants to go back to traditional wall papers.

We ran out of wallpaper, because the stinkin repeat on the thing was 24 inches, and it missed by 15 inches.  Because Dad had made arrangements for a couple in the MTC he had connected with, who are going to Finland on a mission to come and have a tour, we thought we'd better do something temporary.  So we took the 15 inch repeat sections and stuck them on the wall, as you see, without any attempt to match the patterns.  We put a small cupboard at the base to cover the white wall ... oops.  The new wall paper is on the way, but Dad said since the peal and stick is so easy to take off, it would work.  

About that time the family go a save-the-date notice for Darby's college graduation.  We are all so happy for her, and so proud of all she did to make this happen at a time when she was working full time,  caring for a horse and in a relationship as well.  She is our first Amazon woman, as I noticed throughout the week, how many really tall and amazing women I know.  Darby always measured at 5'11" in a country where the average height for a woman is 5'4".  I used to tell her to stand tall, and she could be 6 feet.  Of course you know that Wonder Woman was to be an Amazon.  Which seems like the perfect appellation for Darby.

On Wednesday when walking at Walmart with Carolyn, we saw the poor pansies under snow from the day before.  The weather couldn't quite decide if it was spring or not, I guess.

I worked on Wednesday, so we had Cafe Rio salads before heading to another Hoedown in Santaquin.  This cute girl is the daughter of a former fleaology customer who I follow on Instagram.  The family is so fun.  Its been fun to follow them there and see her three girls growing up.  Ruby is the middle daughter, and evidently we will get to go on trek with her.

Here Dad chats with Brother Jones, who used to live with us in our Park Ward days.

Well, you all join hands and you circle the ring, then you stop where you are give your honey a swing ...

The Payson contingent,  Sisters Andreason, Perkins and Jones.

While I was at work on Thursday, Dad did his shift at the temple, then came home and attached the mantel in the conservatory.  Isn't he clever? 

Here it is all decorated.

On Friday when I was walking at the Christensen farm in Salem, we saw these mushroom condos.  

On another tree we saw some much higher on the tree, and decided they were the penthouses.

Here I am with Ann and KD.

I had brought a quilt I bought from another dealer on Wednesday.  It was in perfect condition, and all the fabrics were licensed Boy Scouting patterns.  Ann, who is 5'11", has been involved in Boy Scouting all of her adult life.  She got a degree in Scout Leadership, during the 6 years it was available as a degree at BYU, where her husband is a professor.  She always did cubs, and after her graduation, she worked for the scout office in Orem.  She ran the Jeremiah Johnson Cub Scout Day camp for more than 10 years.  Unfortunately she found herself unemployed when the camp was closed a few years ago.  Ann has been my friend since we walked starting in 1991 in Orem, it was due to her that we ended up buying this house, because it was while on a visit to see her, in Elk Ridge, that I drove by it and saw that it was for sale.  She has changed my life in so many ways.  Its always been easy to look up to her, because she has always deserved to be honored, and I know I am a better person for having known her.

Later that day Dad and I went to Randy Moe's father's funeral.  Here is a picture of Randy's parents, early on.

and another of their family, Randy is in the middle.

The mortuary set up a back drop behind Gene's draped coffin, I thought that was very nice.  Here Barb takes a picture of her oldest daughter's family..

Here are Dad and I with Briahnna's mother and step father.  Lisa said that she was 6 feet tall, but after being adjusted by her husband/chiropractor she is now 6'1".  Yes another great woman of grand stature.  Lisa and her siblings all play beautifully on classical musical instruments, she played the organ accompaniment for the funeral as well as playing a violin duet with her sister. Such a talented woman.

Since Becca has worked closely with so many family members of this extended family, I think she knows more of them, better, than Dad and I do.  She has so much admiration for them all.

And here are Jeff and Robin with his brother Mike.

Here are Andrea and Lisa playing their duet.

Gene was really such a great man, I wish I had been able to know him better.  There were so many stories about how close he was to each of his children, and how he worked so hard and taught them to work as well.  

There was not a dry eye in the congregation, after Trina, her family and her Aunt Tami played Aloha Oe, It was so beautiful. Randy was able to conduct the funeral as Gene's bishop as well as speaking about his childhood memories as his son.  Tami, Randy's older sister said that at one time last year all four of Gene's sons were in bishoprics, and his daughter was on a full time mission. 

That evening we went with the Kews to a movie about Duke Kanamanoku, who is considered to be the father of modern surfing, as well as having been an Olympic swimmer who won medals in 4 consecutive Olympics.  When we last went to Hawaii with the Moes, we stayed on Kauai and went to a restaurant called 'Duke's', I looked him up at the time, but found this to be so informative.  They said he saved the lives of so many people, who were in the water when he was, that he had lost count.

On Saturday morning, I got us early and made the rest of the food for the Kids Spring Fling we were hosting.  Then Dad took off to pick up all the kids, and I headed to Salt Lake to pick up our Easter Afternoon Tea Box from Honey Tea Hive. 

This is Mika Lee , she is a friend of Edi Mitko, and designs the most beautiful tea boxes you've ever seen.  We've enjoyed a couple with Tom and Edi, but this was our first time to buy solo.  She is 6'4", and I am so charmed by her side business.  

How beautiful is this, we saved them for Easter.

Meanwhile Dad picked up Becca's kids and Van at Becca's house, and got to see baby Cam too.

Davin and Bri's brought their children down and were the first to arrive.  Then Trevor brought his kids after Eleanor's volleyball tournament and took this picture of us all.

Our luncheon plates.

How beautiful are these grands!!

We couldn't get Van to take off his hat for a picture, nor even get him to turn the bill to the back ... but he was so cute.

Dad and Elias hid the eggs while the kids watched part of the Bee Movie.

Not sure why, but this is the only picture I took of the egg hunt.

Look Van holds his hat just like his Papa.

Spencer and Trevor went golfing at Gladstan during the party.

I took the closer kids home, while Dad took the further kids home, then I rushed back to finish the salmon soup I'd started during the end of the party because Dad had invited two Finnish connected couples to dinner.  This is Dad's Finnish teacher, Liisa Watts.  Their daughter Keely Watts was on our second mission with us.  Liisa's mother is Finnish and her father served as a mission president in Finland when she was a child.  She later returned to Finland to serve a mission of her own.

Dad invited the Watts because they are younger, and the Bruces, Thomas and Beth Who are in their early fifties are headed to Finland now.  They are currently in the MTC, and are from Arkansas.  He served in the early 90's, and they also have a daughter who served in Finland, but just before our first mission so we did not know her.

As you can see in this picture, Lissa is also one of the Amazons I met up with this week, at 5'11".  She is now teaching Finnish at BYU, she said it is her dream job, we have certainly enjoyed getting to know them over the last few years.

... And even when you've decided to take a random Easter colors picture at church, I ended up with Darla Raborn who is also close to 6 feet tall, I don't know her too well, but I am pretty sure she is amazing too.

But perhaps the most precious story of a 6 foot woman this week is that of Jaysa Tucker.  She is actually our Post Lady, and spoke in church today, telling us how aware Christ and our father are to each of us and our problems.  She told how broken hearted she was after a 7 year marriage ended when she was 27, and she had been unable to have a baby, though they had tried everything.  She said all she'd ever wanted to be was a mother, and her mother told her that maybe now she would remarry a man with children, and that is how she could be a mother.  She did remarry a man with two children and shared custody.  After their marriage they tried all the high tech things to get pregnant, to no avail.  She said that as she drives her mail truck she listens to podcasts and conference talks.  In one of President Nelson's talks she felt very encouraged, then in a podcast by a Christian Lady, she was asked.  Do you have the faith to ask once more for something that you have been denied.  She immediately thought of her desire to have a baby, and a warmth of love filled her body from head to toe.  The next month she found out she was pregnant.  She was naturally delighted, and grateful for a Heavenly Father who is so aware of us, and the difficulties of our lives.

After Church we enjoyed our Honey Tea Hive Easter Tea.

Here Dad eats the delightful chocolate mousse.

Next it was to Trevor's where we had a delightful dinner, and got to watch these three littles gathering eggs.

I also got to play a fun word game with Scott.

So that was our week.  We are so aware of the wonderful people we get to associate with, and some of them are not so very tall at all, though we expect our Eleanor to make it to 6 feet in due time.