When Witches Gather

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On Monday we headed down to Gunnison for the funeral of Mable and Welby's oldest son.  Here Dad is shown with Darrell's two of his three surviving siblings, Morrie and Karen.

He was on the winning Mmen basketball team, and coached as well as teaching all his life.

Here we are with another cousin, Jerry Dibble, who actually lives in our ward.

After getting home Dad got to painting the fence, he had installed the week before.

Here it is all black.

For dinner we had a knock off of some fast food we saw at the farmers market in Provo a while back.  Of course, I used mushrooms instead of strips of beef, over fries done in our air flier, so pretty healthy and very yummy.  

Tuesday saw Dad out at Mosida, working on the shade structures some more.

That evening we all headed to LaVern and Ron's place for dinner. This is my hostess gift for LaVern.

It was fun to see her turkeys in her poultry yard.

Aren't they lovely looking?

Here's her lovely table.

And part of her flowerpot collection.

Here are the Gurrs, Sister Pittman, LaVern, the Smiths and Elder Brimhall.

The Hardmans, the Lathrops, Ron, the Marvins and Dad.

Also the Child's and Gurrs.  So fun!!

At work the next day Julie Smith came in and brought her two besties, Carrie Bateman, and Jill Chestnut.  I knew Jill before because she lived in our stake, after living out on the west side of Utah Lake.  Her husband Rick and Dad served together in the branch presidency of the nursing home branch our stake administers.  Small world.

Julie brought me the cute mushroom salt and pepper shakers set she found when they went to lunch at Cracker Barrell, that I added to my mushroom shelf in the kitchen.  Sweet.

My book club has switched to Wednesday night and was at Ann's.  We discussed the The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio, which we all loved.  It is a true story about a woman who largely supports her family of 10 children by entering and winner contests.

After our discussion we watched the first episode of a network TV show, based on a book we read this summer, Lessons in Chemistry. That was fun too. 

On Thursday Dad went back to the temple, after being closed for two weeks.  I, of course was at work again, and was thrilled when Bill and Janet Liberty came in to visit.  As you can see I am dressed in part of my witch costume for that night at Kimi's in Salt Lake.

I put together this hostess gift for Kimi, including a roll of Halloween toilet paper, and a Halloween necklace I had made. 

Katie, shown on the left here, picked me up along with her Mom and our friend Kathy Romero who is also a friend of Kimi's. Kimi is shown on the right. I love her Colonial Style witch dress, a first for me.

I ran into friends, Jenean, a former fleaology dealer, and Laurie, a former Treasures dealer, who I originally met as the friend of a former book club member.  Now both of them are friends of Kimi's.  It just gets more and more tangled.   Friends are just fun.

There were probably thirty witches at the shindig, some more dressed up than others. 

More cute ladies. 

And still more.

Here I am with a new friend.

And the girls I came with, plus Kimi.  Katie, Kimi, Sherri, me and Kathy Romero.

And here's Kathy, with a new friend, cool costume, and Katie. 

Friday was Emily's birthday; this is Dad's collage he posted on Face Book.

I worked at the Grove that day, and had so many friends come in, over the 6 hours, that was on a social high all day.  I also found a a couple of fabulous deals, so a good day overall.

Dad spent the day Friday, adding two by fours to the seams of the wafer board that makes up the outside shell of the carriage house, as per instructed by the city inspector. He also needed to upgrade some of the infamous Jim Hill wiring out in the carriage house...

Then he headed up to Park City to participate in a Barbershop show. 

Here's the bill, and the pretty sight after Dad left.

 

He also met Ed and Tiina Watts at the concert. Their son sings with The Lux Singers. Tiina was teaching Dad Finnish before our second mission. 

Saturday morning Dad and I headed to Boulder Colorado, where I was to pick up some dishes I'd bought on Market Place, before heading to Texas to see Emily and Sam's family.  On the way we stopped at Grand Junction to see their temple in the process of being built. 

As we drove up over the passes, there was snow at the ski resorts. 

Then when we got to the gal's house to get the dishes, we found snow there, and the next morning, after spending the night in Limon, we woke up to snow on the car.  Most of our drive in Colorado was with snow on the road, so it was a long, long drive. 

So here we are waking up Monday morning in Texas. 

 William shares his art. 

You can tell its Halloween season.

I told William his village reminds me of when we went to Tallinn, Estonia. 

How fun are the wrinkled pumpkins the next morning. 

So, we're here for a week of fun. 

 

Extracurricular

On Monday Dad went out to Mosida to work on projects, including dumping out the left-over ice (they placed the ice blocks at the foot of the trees in the park to give them just a little more water), and turning off the freezer for the winter.

Since the gals didn't go out, I stayed home and worked on cleaning up the craft room some more.  

That night I got together with some friends to go and see The Adams Family in Highland. 

Me, Lilly, Liz, Rachel, and her mom Ann.

It was a musical, surprisingly. 

It was also Sam's birthday that day.  His new school, where he is the principal, showed all kind of appreciation for this good man.

Dad went out to Mosida again on Tuesday,

Where they were working on the shade structure at Fort Laramie

When he got home, this order to quit working on the carriage house was waiting for him ... yep, its back to being a carriage house, because without footings it cannot be considered living space.

So, after taking in his application for a building permit, Dad helped me cut down this frame to fit the Jolynn Forman painting I picked up last week. 

I just love the details on this 1800's frame.

On Wednesday I was back at work.  I put together this autumn display in my back booth.

After work I headed over to the Springville Art Museum to attend the announcement of winners in the Religious and Spiritual Art show.  Nell had an entry accepted, and I wanted to help celebrate this honor.

Dad had his Barbershop Practice in SLC that night and missed the fun.

Rose Datoc Dall, whose open house gallery I attended last year, took best of show.  Her open house this year is while I am in Texas, sadly. 

This is an assemblage piece, I found interesting.

I thought this one was beautiful. 

This one made me smile, and its for Becca's Nanny, it's called Abish's Path.  Named for the character in the Book of Mormon who runs to gather all the town's people after witnessing a miracle, in hopes of converting them all.  Becca's new Nanny is named for the same Abish.

Stunning

Another assemblage piece, this one received a purchase award from the museum.

This entry is by Jolynn Forman, whose painting I hung in my bedroom this week. 

Here are Penny and her Dad by Nell's stunning entry.  It's a grouping of photos Nell took of various dead birds she and family members found during and after her conflict with cancer.  The matts are made of paper Nell made that included, among other things, some of the hair that she lost during her chemo treatments. The message is that God is even aware of each small bird and is much more aware of each of his children, even when and perhaps especially when they struggle. 

It was so poignant that I found myself crying as I read her short explanatory paragraph, I was so touched.

Here's a few more entries that I enjoyed.

Penny uses a magnet to manipulate a marble through a maze that is included in this entry.

Nell ran into another student from her BYU Arts Program.

When I complimented this lady on her charming Chinese Silk dress .... she said she had gotten it at DI, my kind of girl. 

This is Rose with her winning piece.

The next morning, I noted that my two days' worth of clothes, awaiting a second wearing, kind of went together. 

When I got home from work on Thursday, I found that a restless, unable to work on the carriage house, Dad, had cut back all the lilacs, ripped out the old chain-link fence, and had installed the fencing we bought for this purpose last year. 

This picture is from Friday, after he painted the two white sections on the sides, it kind of disappears. 

I tried another picture of the house in the evening light, unfortunately the colored leaves sort of blend into the stone color. 

Friday was Cam's birthday, and also my great grandmother, Regina Emelie Wang's, who was born October 20, 1858, in Trondheim, Norway. 

Dad also borrowed this picture of her from her aunt's Insta page of her treasuring a pink feather she got from Dumbo at Disneyland recently.

Dad and I worked on various projects that day, including, as mentioned, Dad painting the side sections of the fence.

On Saturday, I took some more pictures of fall color.  I have never seen the Virginia Creeper so red.

and I love how it blends in with these fun flowers I got for these pots in the spring. 

I love this view through the garden, looking to the south and through to the fence Dad just installed.

I also finished framing the picture on the left, and hanging it and the picture on the right, in the dining room.  They are from the Business card sized art show that Kirk Richard sponsors.  Trevor and Nell picked them up for me when the show was over.   I also framed a business card size picture of a Sego Lily, painted by another of the artists at the Religious Art Show, but it will hang with my pioneer related art in the family room, which is awaiting wall papering. 

On Saturday, I ran over to visit with my friend Aubrey since she got two kittens, and I wanted to snuggle them.  She had also done fun pink Halloween decor.  She put together this fun tree herself ... she's so clever. 

Then we were off to McKenna Terry's wedding reception in American Fork. Here is Dad with Anna Petersen and Spencer Jeffries, both former Finnish missionaries who are engaged to be married January 3rd, 2024.

Here is Charlotte Elkins, her husband Colt Jevne and their son. Yep, she served in Finland.

Here we are with the newlyweds, Jaxson Olsen and McKenna Terry. McKenna was one of our Covid missionaries who served in Wisconsin for 3 months before she could come to Finland. She learned how to use social media to spread the gospel while in Wisconsin and became a specialist for the mission.

Dad is with James Phelps and Bryatt Stoker, both former Finnish missionaries.

We just caught Handsome (Chase) Kimball as we were leaving. 

Dad went to join some of his grandkids at the BYU game.  This is Penny and Van.

Penny, Van, Spencer and Trevor. 

Penny with Cosmo.

Cam, Trevor, Van and Penny.

two little blond cousins.

and finally with Dad.   The wedding reception started at 6, the game had started at 5, which shows just how much Dad loves his Finnish Missionaries.  He said he got there by half-time, yeah Dad.

So, this week, I went to a play and an art show. Dad participated in his Barbershop Chorus practice and a football game.  Otherwise he helped me frame and hang several works of art for our home, and on beautifying it on the outside as well. 

Time spent with Grandkids was a wonderful bonus!!