Babysitting and Barbershop

But remember it is the kind of babysitting where there are no babies, and the kind of Barbershop where there are no haircuts.

Welcome to the Summers Kid Care Air B and B.  Reagan did a cute job of welcoming us to stay.  She folded the towels as hearts and placed them on the bed.  She made rooms signs for the guest room and bathroom.  She cleared a drawer for our use in the bathroom too.  We felt the love.

She did some entertaining as well.

Dad found this picture looking toward Big Cottonwood Canyon in the early 50's, he said it was taken from where the Dan's 70th store is now. Can you see where the road goes up Butler hill?  Our first house was built on top of Butler hill in 1959.

We spent the day at home with the kids.  Reagan did lots of gymnastics stuff for fun.  Lots of screens were involved, then we all went to Macey's to get stuff to make dinner.  Reagan got to choose her favorite, which was hamburgers.

After dinner these fake landowners played Monopoly with Dad.  That was pretty entertaining too.

On Tuesday Dad took the kids to school, and then while I was in Tooele he went to Walmart to get a new watch and ran into our Finnish friend Stina.

What's really fun is that she painted this picture of our house and brought it over to Dad on Friday at Becca's house, since we were 'in the neighborhood'.  How sweet is that?

Meanwhile I was hanging out in Tooele.  After a visit with Joyce and picking up some copper stuff to sell for her, I ran over to visit Todd and his girlfriend, to deliver a check from the sale of his mother's estate stuff.  Her name in Geniel, which she pronounces Janell.  It was nice to meet up.

That night we took the younger kids to Applebee's as we had to go to Payson to get the van for Dad, as he had to pick up stuff for his Barbershop Chorus sponsoring of Youth Harmony Days, that would be Saturday.  

After dinner I got to ride my exercise bike at the house while Dad got his stuff together, and the kids played with the Legos. 

I got to see lots of tumbling on the bed and visiting with the kids too, mainly Reagan, but Titan was a pretty good sport and came in for a few tumbles himself.  He was hilarious.  They made the bed up neatly afterward, and I was very impressed.

Upside down again.

At work on Wednesday, I got Joyce's stuff priced and set out in my 'Frenchy' booth.

On Thursday I set out my St Patrick's Day decor.

Here is more of that. 

Also, these gals came in who were looking for buttons to make into jewelry, they sat on the floor for an hour sorting though the small aquarium full that I have for sale.  They were having too much fun.

Mary came in to pick up her layaway, including the arrow that used to be in the family room here.

On Friday I got some of the stock I'd bought on our trip to do Julie's estate, last October, out of the van, and priced it at the Summer's house.  Then I was off for a few hours to restock at The Grove ... this cute cottage pitcher fit perfectly with a cottage plate that was already there.

I also redid this little picture grouping, to cover the two pictures that sold out of it after I set it up a week before.  It's kind of funny to note, that the next day, I sold two of the pictures out of the reformed grouping.  I definitely need to work on framing some more little pictures.

I had three pitchers in the stuff from the trip, and there were two more pitchers already at the store.

As well as this bowl and pitcher set, and the two demi cups and saucers shown here.

It was fun to see Becca and Britt at the conference in Las Vegas too. Brady was there as well, not sure why we don't have a picture of him.

Becca and Brady got home Friday afternoon, and we headed home.  We did the regular stuff we hadn't done in a while. 

On Saturday Dad was off early to get ready for the big event.  Here he is with Henry Curtis picking up the pizzas.

There were about 250 kids who participated, here are the boys.

and here are the girls.

Here is the combined group from as far away as Clearfield and Payson.  The event was held at Murray Highschool in Salt Lake.

Dad had me work at the box office, so I got to meet a couple of other wives, which is always fun.

This quartet from Sweet Adelines was there and helped the girls.

These are the sections leaders from the chorus who worked with the boys.

Dad did all the running around and purchasing for the event, with a little help from me.

At church today we talked about the restoration of the priesthood, and what happened here on the Susquehanna River in May of 1829. Our Primary President is encouraging the teachers to use personal experiences and testimonies, so we shared this.

Here are Trevor and Spencer on the trip where he baptized his little brother in the Susquehanna River. 

We showed them the pictures in our scrapbook, boy is that thing heavy to tote around.

Here Dad shows them a video of the event.

So that was our sort of unusual week.  We hope you all had a good one too, and that you got to spend time with those you love most. 

Valen Times or I Heart Art

To begin our week of love, we got a surprise visit from the Kemppainens, who we met in Finland on our second mission.  They are so amazing ... they have worked and served missions in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. They are also one of the 6 couples who were called to be the first missionaries in Russia. They lived in Finland, but traveled to Russia, as well as teaching Russian people who lived in Finland.  

We got to know them when they took us to a lodge that had a buffet meal and sauna on the lake so you could jump in when you got too hot.  Such lovely people.

Such cute love birds too, they met the year we married, so they've been together for a long time.  Jussi has become interested in the first Finn to join the church.  As it turns out, the first Finn is an ancestor of Ralph Jamsa's, who is currently on a mission in Africa. Ralph told us about his ggggrand when we served with them also on our second mission.  He told us he was a sailor on a ship that brought the Mormons to the USA in 1853. Several of the sailors joined the church at that time. Then on our mission out at Mosida, we found out that this Finn was also one of the rescuers to the Martin and Willie companies and ended up marrying one of the women he rescued. Dad printed off stories about this Finn from The Book we used out at Mosida. for them.

There was more love, that day, when I made Valentines for the gals coming to craft with me the next day.

So, on Tuesday Shirley and Kim came over to create. 

We exchanged Valentines, then dug into an unusual art project, making Mexican Religious Nichos.  It was fun as always. 

Then there was the tour to see what house projects we have been working on.

This is Shirley's Nicho.

My first Nicho.

Kim's Nicho.

And my second Nicho, which I finished after the girls had left.

Here we are holding our completed Nichos. Last of all we went out lunch at MiRancherito, which we thought was appropriate.

That evening we got together with Dad's cousins Karen and Jerry, as it was actually Karen's birthday.  You may recall that the 3 of them were born within 2 weeks of each other back in 1953 ... of course it was Mexican again, which made my second of the day.  Fortunately, they had a salad I could order.

On Wednesday I found the sign above my bookstore booth, hanging askew with the banner part torn off.  People are so weird sometimes. I took it home and repaired it and repositioned it here on Thursday. 

Also, on Thursday I gathered all this blackened silver plate, and thought it was funny that I had one large hotel coffee pot to go in the middle, then I had two each of the pitchers, teapots and syrup containers. It was almost as if I had planned it.

But even weirder on Thursday there was a big storm and we lost both Internet and phone connection.  Since our back up charge card machine can use the phoneline if the internet goes out, we were stuck accepting only cash after 2:30, it was a terrible sales day.

On Wednesday Dad put up the plat map that I found at a yard sale years ago, which is of the first installment of the neighborhood I grew up in.  He had it laminated a few weeks ago.

It is dated 1909, the year that my father was born.

Here's the name of it.

Inside the red circle are the street we lived on, Hartford and one to the right of it is Imperial for which I used the name on this cabinet.  Now hopefully I'll find an easier way to finish the cabinet with the names of other streets in this subdivision.

I hope you can tell how these go together above the mirror and cupboard in our main floor bathroom.  It is after-all, decorated in black and white.

On Thursday the Young Women came and gave us a heart attack.

Welcome Valentines Day! This is Kim with her coworkers that day.

This is Kim when a Barbershop Quartet came and sang to her.

Dad's quartet got to sing for Ashley at Market Street.

And here they are when they met up with Becca at a Dress Boutique and sang to her.

Hannah had a turn too, at work.

And another quartet came and sang to Darby at her house. 

Nadine Evans was very surprised when they came to sing to her.  She is actually a fan of Barbershop, and came with us when we went to a show last year.

And here they are when they sang to Davin's family, he's behind the camera.

Here's a Valentine ornament that my friend Shirley gave me, I got around to putting it my tree on Valentines.

My path on Valentines was quite varied.  I started by making funeral potatoes for Carol Marshall's funeral.  Then I took them with me when I went to Carol's funeral.

Sadly, Jolene Rowan and I were the only people from our ward, without assignments, who attended.  Dad and I just love the Marshalls, but since most of the old 5th ward has been wacked away, and the two lower (west) blocks in the ward are filled with nonmembers and less-active people, there were not many who knew them. That just seems so strange to me, she was always and active and important part of the fifth ward twenty years ago.

This is the on-line Valentine I sent to a few of my friends.

Then I did some junking at 2 DIs, Restore and Farmhouse Peddler, before heading to the Grove in AF to put up this display of small art work.  Two of them sold the next day ...

Then, still at The Grove I picked up these two paintings that I had bought from another dealer, who had posted the paintings she had found at fleamarkets in California at the beginning of the week.  I just love Venmo, I bought them before they hit the store, and she left them there for me to pick up, as she lives in SLC. The landscape is done by a Japanese artist in the 1970's, that's a first for us.

When I got back to Payson, I took a Valentine's gift around to all 5 of my ministering sisters, as well as to my partner.  Here I am with Tina, who was also dressed in her Valentines best. 

But no one can top Ann, she was actually in Valentine, Texas on Valentines.

On Saturday I bummed around the house, even Dad got out to do some banking and grocery shopping.  I did do a few small chores, including putting these paintings and prints on the TV cabinet in out room.  I had them ready to put up for almost a week.  I also reframed the two smaller Kristen Tye prints in matching frames so I could put them on either side of her painting.  I like the overall look. 

  Dad finally made me leave the house and go to dinner, no matter that I asked him to go and get take- out.  Cafe Rio was yummy and healthy.

I made Valentines for my Primary Class kids while we watched 2 episodes of Castle and then watched the movie, Valentine's Day ... I think we were both exhausted from Friday.

Also on Saturday, I was on Face Book Market place and found an artist in Logan who was selling his work.  He charges a dollar per square inch, which was good for me, as I needed a few more small landscapes to finish a small wall in our bedroom.  The three paintings and shipping were just a bit more than $100.  I thought the Logan connection was good, as that is where Dad was born.  

And just for kicks and giggles I thought I'd share this collage of Kim and I with hearts on our shirts. Who wore it best .... hahahahaha