Per Perkins Perhe: Fun with Flags

and it begins ... one of the busiest weeks in our elderly shortened combined memories. This gem of a photo is of Benny ... Emily said he said "The bad guys got me."

And Dad liked this one of Charlie, which is perfect for our week of flags and countries. The All American Girl.

Britt's been making these origami leis for local high school graduates. She said it put her in the 'Ben Zone', because he always loved folding money into origami hearts for people. Trevor said he still wears his on his suit. Darby and Bri also mentioned still having theirs. Beautiful lei, by the way Brittany.

Dad went out to Mosida on Monday, as they worked on finishing up the refinishing of the 80 carts we'll be using starting this Wednesday. YIKES

Dad got a kick out of this meme.

I went into work on Monday, and made the three posters for our Multi Cultural Night. I did Finland's because that is the table I would host, then the gal doing Russia begged off just the poster, and another family begged off altogether, so I decided to put together a quicky American table to cover that. Of course I love this kind of thing, so no sacrifice necessary.

A lady from Bolivia came into work that day. She moved here in her 20's, and I commented that I have never actually met anyone from Bolivia, and asked her for a picture just for Davin.

This lady is not from a foreign county, but she is making a land of her own, a cactus garden. We have a dealer, I think I have mentioned before, who propagates cactus and plants them all over his yard, then pots them and sells them for $5 at the mall. Not just at the Mall either but also to the big nurseries, who sell them for a good deal more than that. I took the picture for him, note her shirt.

On Tuesday we both went to Mosida. Here Francy shows off the hat that she adapted from a wide brimmed straw hat. How cute is that?

Here's Elder Parker our mission director, with one of the finished handcarts.

Then I paired up with Sister Jones and her Mom in painting the blinds that keep the 'river crossing' out of sight of the trekkers.

Dad's assignment was repairing a tarp that had torn down in the wind. They're mostly supervising Elder Smith right here.

We took off after lunch so we could pick up a few things and then head over to the church where we were essentially in charge of the activity, including set up.

These are the flags for the 8 countries we represented. That were 8 chairs at 8 tables, and that is exactly how many we served. 64, Isn't that crazy?

Sister Wing shows off her Russian table setting.

The Petersons did the table for Peru.

Here's my quicky Americana table.

And my Finnish table, not the stoneware Dad sent home from his mission, and the Finnish crystal I have collected over the years.

Kei and Jia Xin Webber, who is from Taiwan, did this table.

Here is Nancy Ramirez and her table.

The Partridge family sat at our table. I had never met Ben before, but it was fun to get to know him. His cousin is Malia, who was good friend with Trevor and Nell, when they lived in the ward. Their grandmother is Melissa.

Here Kei Webber takes a selfie of their table.

In this picture Fatima Fletcher who is from Brazil, and Dallin Gariety who served his mission there.

Some people set up tables of souvenirs, like this one.

You can't tell, but Sister Evans, who is from Zimbabwe has a foot stool made from, well, a foot of an elephant.

Here's my super simple American display.

Here the Ramirez' present their bit of the program.

The whole activity was super fun and involved a lot of people, who spent their time and creativity to serve each other. The whole committee was so pleased with how it turned out.

On Wednesday Dad went out to Mosida again, while I worked. I met this nice lady who has the nicest hobby ... She finds antique pictures at Antique Malls that have information on the back, names, some a photographer with a town listed, then does some sluething and finds a relative to send it to. There is just so much good in the world.

Our only nod to another country that day was the Cafe Rio Mexican food we ate on our way to the Hoedown in Lehi.

Here are Sisters Crump and Smith with me in my new birthday pioneer clothes. The dress is from Joyce and the apron and bonnet are from Trevor and Nell.

The ward was doing a clinic to build they buckets with cushions on top for the trek. We did the Hoedown with them afterwards. Its a huge ward with hundred people who will be going.

Thursday morning Dad started talking about the need to build a book case in our bedroom. We have books everywhere in here, and need to get them organized.

I took in some silverware to the antique mall on that day. I had polished it that morning to replenish this case which was pretty empty.

After Dad got out of the temple, he went to Spanish to pick up the Indian Food from the couple who live next door to Davin. The husband is from India and its wonderfully authentic. Not that I've been there, mind, but I did learn to love Indian food when we picked up Emily from her mission in Japan, and there was a Nepalese ward member who had a restaurant. (Maybe I should go grab a Japanese and Napalese flag... or NOT!) It works out great because he can pick it up while I'm still at work and voila Dinner's ready when I get home.!! We love it. They make it every other Thursday.

So here's a bit I ran across this week about my English Great Grand Father. You know, Like Milt is your Great Grand Father, only my great grand father, Thomas Benjamin Clark actually came across the plains in a wagon in the 1850's (By the way it is his father, Benjamin Thomas Clark who took in a window from the Marten Handcart Company along with three or four of her children.)

This is his wife, Sarah Neal in a four generation picture which includes my third cousin, the baby, Olliette, she has the same relationship to Sarah Neal and Thomas Clark as I do ... only she was born in 1910, and I was born in 1954. Just thought you'd get a kick out of that.

And now for a picture of me, with the Norwegian flag I found thrifting last week. And here is my story about my grandmother Larsen. Early on, after about a year of marriage I was a geneology buff. Almost all that could be found had been found on all my family's lines. But inexplicably I found that my grandmother Edvarda Amelia Solberg's father Edward Solberg's parents work, had not been researched. So I dived right end and took one of the lines back about 3 generations. (Ask me about my little geneology miracle doing it sometime.) But I was never able to find their marriage information. Anyway I sent in all the work I had done, and not long after got an angryish phone call from an Aunt, who was my father's youngest sister. She told me I had no business to do that line. She said the family had agreed not to (aha). She told me that my Grandmother's mother had been a hotel maid, and my grandmother's father had been a hotel patron, they were not married. After my grandmother was born, he had left to go to America. Seems like a straight forward story, right? Evidently not, because this week I noticed on Family Tree that they had a second child. This child was found by Doug and Shirley's granddaughter Callie. He was born after our grandmother, Edvarda, but died at about 7 months. Now I am wondering, if they lived together as husband and wife, she did name her first child after him in a community that would have noticed. Had he left his first wife and 'married' our great grandmother in another town? Did she know he was married? Did the truth come out and he fled to America? Was she angry? I believe that Edvarda was raised by one of her mother's brother's families because she was very close to Hannah Wang (Her mother last name was also Wang), a cousin who later went to China where she served as a Christian missionary until her death. She and my grandmother corresponded for years. She even came to the USA to visit Grandmother once, my mom met her. (My siblings may recall a little Chinese Costume that was in the Costume chest that Hannah sent to Edvarda) Anyway, I thought that was all so interesting.

OK enough of the genealogy stories, just remember, "The past is a foreign country, they do things differently there." It just happens to be a foreign country without a flag. (Quote by L P Hartley)

And speaking of interesting, Becca was on the news this week!!

At book club that night we talked about Dutch Girl, the story of the involvement and resistance of the Dutch during WWII. Its interesting to know there is another view of the Resistance in Holland during the war, since I so recently read the Hiding Place. It was agreed by all of our members that there was not enough about Audrey Hepburn in particular, it was more about those involved with her and around her.

and this is the dutch flag.

Friday was an errand day, like no other. By the end of the day, I had made a total of 17 stops, and no, I am not going to spare you the details, because, after all, this is my journal. Right?

1. Meeting Ann to hike the Forebay Canal trail.

2. Stopped at a couple of garage sales, at one I found huge pieces of coral I am going to include in my memory wall.

3. Teaching Ann how to wallpaper for the first time. BTW she was a quick study.

4. Stopping in Spanish for sourdough Rye bread.

5. A stop at the DI in Springville because I was too early for a buying appointment in Provo.

6. A stop at the DI in Provo because I was still too early.

7. The buying appointment had been misrepresented and I walked away with 2 items for which I paid too much.

8. A stop at the DI in AF because I was too early to meet my friend Bruce who was letting me do a sale preview.

9. This is a picture of my pearl handled silverware, which I have collected for many years. I had enough to serve 8, and enough knives and forks for 12, but the spoons are rare, as most of these were made with just knives and forks as fish sets. (The spoons were mostly for sauce, and each set had only one. Though a few soup spoons sets were made and sold separately) So the story here is that I found four soup spoons, voila! I also got another tomato spoon for that collection.

10. Next I drove to Wendy's to deliver ( a month later) the wicker chairs she'd bought at Fleaology. Here her husband shows his target paper, as Wendy shows a bullet, as after thirty years of putting in for an Elk Permit, he finally got drawn! Happy Day.

11. When I told Ann, while walking, about all the errands I had that day, she said. "I had some amazing flavored burgers at a BBQ recently, and wanted to get some of the same, but the place is in Highland!! Yep, this is me picking up some Jalapeno burgers, and others for Ann's Memorial Day BBQ, The fun thing is that the 'place' was Myer's Meats. They were affiliated with The Store, when Dad worked there in Holiday. This kid is the son of Marsh Myers, who Dad work with in our early marriage.

12. Unfortunately I had to stop and get gas. Dad was not happy when he told me how much I would need to buy to get to Costco, so he could get the better price.

13. was picking up this food processor I had bought on KSL, from this nice lady in Highland.

14. Then I went back to the DI in AF to pick up a large shelf I couldn't load because of the four wickrer chairs.

This was not a stop, just a memory of Ben ... doesn't it sound just like the kind of company he would have put together? Do you remember that Aunt Cheryl always called him Big Ben.

15. Dad and I met at Macey's, then I jumped in his car and we headed to the Springville Cemetery, where we left flowers in memory of Ben. There was a man named Juan sitting nearby on a metal folding chair. He said his wife was buried near by, and he comes after work every day for a while to sit and think about her. She was younger than me, having died of cancer about 6 months ago. He was very pleasant to talk with.

16. We headed back to Macey's where Dad took the van and filled it with gas at the Costco next door, while I did some shopping for the dinner we would have the next day.

17. I delivered Ann's meat to her on my way home to Payson.

It was a great day for me, there's nothing I like better than being busy. But now I can never tease Robin about all her errands ... most of hers are in the service of others, but I am pretty sure she never did 17 in one day ...

At home Dad pointed out that the roses are blooming on the arbor on the south side of the house.

On Saturday he went to help Trevor take out and replace the water heater at Payson Cottage. The crazy thing is that Dad installed this one, just before we moved back to Broadstone in 2002. I looked it up on line and it said that a water heater has an average of a 10 year life ... so I guess we should be thrilled that it lasted 20 years.

Of course Dad loves any chance to spend time with his kids . (Trevor's our property manager for this one)

With company coming I figured it would be a good time to change out the porch bench, and how perfect is the Americana theme for our week of flags.

We ran into Emma Quiggly at Fleaology a month ago, and put together a scheme to have her boyfriend's folks, their son, and some other Finnish missionaries come to dinner. She did the choosing and got Olivia Pluim and her month old husband Eli Walton, as well as Dessi Anderson and her fiance Eli Staggs. Both of them served near us in Helsinki for quite a while and Dad counted how many times we had them to dinner at the same time there, and it was 9 times!! 9 Times, I don't remember us feeding them both 9 times (did you catch the reference?)

Of course the perfect game for the occasion was asking questions about foreign countries. The guys won by 17 to 16. (We only played one side of the cards)

Then it was tour time. Olivia said the last time she came here to dinner they didn't get to see the house because the rest of the party had seen it previously. So that was fun. Here Eli tests my words that claw foot tubs are the most comfortable in the world. He agreed.

Our Missionaries.

The balcony.

We got a post card from Finland this week too ... but no flag.

We could have flown the Finnish flag for the third time this week, as we drove down to Fountain Green for Sister Savannah Allred's homecoming.

It was hailing when we came out of the church.

On the way to lunch in honor of Savannah, we found the 'Old Home Love' house' in town. These folks dedid an old house in Payson, before they headed down to Fountain Green to make this old Elementary into a house. We watched the series on the Magnolia Network. It was gorgeous.

At lunch we met Savannah's step Dad (Her father passed away) sporting the same pattern tie, probably made by the same young woman in Finland. Dad actually has that one too.