Charpter Two in the Musical Cupboard Saga.

On Monday we started with a stop at Dave and Bri's to pick up some household goods for Spencer, she also had some great tote boxes for us, I'll show you one later.  It's great when she reorganizes, cause we all benefit.  Ashley will be getting some espresso cups too.  After that we stopped to drop the goodies at Spencer and Britt's house.  The bonus here is obvious.  I can't believe how grown Cam is.

And as we were leaving Cam ran to meet her Mom and Van as they came back from school.

The whole business of the trip was to pick up this cupboard I'd found on FB marketplace in Kaysville.  This pic was taken on Saturday after I had masked the glass, but I wanted a before picture.  The cupboard is for the shop to replace the cupboard I showed you last week that is coming home to replace the European cupboard I am selling to Becca ...

And of course, if I am going to Kaysville we are going to hook up with Doug and Shirley.  We met them for dinner at the Big Bear Diner in Layton, so of course, why wouldn't we stop by to see the amazing Meg.  Here she is with her stepsons, lucky guys.

And here are the blackberry sweet rolls she made (the blackberries came from her garden, we got to taste test them too.)

And here is just one aspect of her beautiful garden.

And another  ... She is such an amazing woman.

We also took a moment to add a new temple to our list, it is our 71st, the Layton Temple.

Back at their house we get to say hi to their missionary (Andrew's son) who is serving in parts of what was Ben's mission, back in the day.

Tuesday saw Alex head off for his first day of College,

as Cam headed for her first day of Pre-K.

We met up with the birthday boy at Golden Corral, as Emily calls to wish him a happy birthday,

We tried to do a do over this classic photo.

Here are a few of the tries.

Thanks for stepping up, Ashley, for a new August Birthdays photo.

A good time was had by all.

Gather indeed.

For the boy who owns the day.

After lunch we headed home where Dad dropped me off and headed to an extra temple shift.  Your cousin Matt came by with a loaf of Sourdough bread that Brianna had made for us.  They wanted to say thanks for Dad repairing the deck back a few months ago when Becca sold the house Brianna and her first husband had lived in after they moved to Utah for his cancer treatments.  Her folks and brother had come with her and stayed in the house so her brother could finish high school.  Then it was time to sell.  Sounds like everybody wins. 

And speaking of winning, that Night when we went to Nadine's, I found out what is at the end of my rainbow!  Pure Gold indeed.

We watched the second episode of this 3 part series.   Always a good time.

At work on Wednesday, I moved things around to make room for Halloween decor that Shirley was bringing me to sell to make money for Trevor's family big charity project this fall.  You can see that below the colorful transferware, I've made room for the silver plate flatware that I sell by the piece, mostly for making silverware.

These crafted and collected treasures fill up the table where the silverware used to call home.

Pretty cute stuff, eh?

That night after dinner, when we were watching Happy Gilmore (in honor of Ashley, who loves it.) I made this little cabinet of curiosities.

Here it is in its place at the antique mall on Thursday.

BTW, on Wednesday day Dad went to the family history center to save his grandpa from being sealed to the wrong father, then he mowed the lawn and went to the doctor.  Yep, he's that cool.

On Thursday he went back to the temple for another shift.

But most importantly it was this girl's birthday.  Happy 37th!

I celebrated by hanging out with my book club.  This is me and Judy.

Suzanne, Ann, Sandy's d.i.l and Sandy as Ann tells about her adventures of being out of water with her two sons in the desert in South-Eastern Utah, after two expected springs in a row were found dry, and were all airlifted by Helicopter last week.  Whoa.

Everyone was spell bound, thankfully since most of us were not too thrilled with the book, Little Men, by Lousia May Alcott.

On Friday I headed to the Payson Library for their annual book sale.

The box/bag that Bri had given us was the perfect tool.

I laughed to see this unlikely set of twins sharing their wagon with a pile of books.  It was so cute.  But the next day when I went back I saw a repeat, when I saw Brother Peterson at the book sale with his twins, similarly ensconced sharing their wagon with books as well.  Though they are 6 months older than these twins, so they were looking at the books and tossing them out of the wagon.

Friday night we met up with the Moes and Heuers at the Heuers for Halmark night number two, though we did end up watching a net flix movie instead.

Jeff and Robin eating her birthday cake.  She shares her birthday with J. Scott.

The potluck was yummy.  Randy made this zucchini egg bake that was lovely, and Robin made her peas and cheese cube salad with slivered almonds, that I love, we also enjoyed Randy's homemade salsa.   We brought garlic bread and a peach cobbler made with the rest of the peaches we'd been given by Dave and Bri and Doug and Shirley too.

It was all so very yummy.

Cute movie.

Early Saturday these two crazies went off together to run in preparation for their marathon and 1/2 marathon, respectively next week. They ran down Payson Canyon, where the races will happen next Saturday.

Here Becca finishes up her 10 miles, Dad ran 6.

On Saturday, as I mentioned I was back at the library filling yet another of Davin and Bri's gifted box/bags.  I smiled at this young man's t-shirt and thought of how much my boys enjoyed the movie.

In the late afternoon, Dad headed off to meet up with Trevor and his f-i-l at the BYU game. I stayed home and spent four hours painting the afore said cupboard, which is still not done. Pictures to come.

They got to see Brittney's mom and Parks,

as well as Van, lower left, and some of his cousins.

At church we got to see the Fletcher twins at the same time, as the new one in the ward spoke, and the old one came to see him do it.  On the left is Delon, who used to live in our ward, before it was chopped up in February of 2024.  He and his Brazilian wife have two kids and two adopted younger foster kids, so still a young family.  Whereas his Twin Leon, just moved into the ward with his tall blonde wife as they are downsizing for retirement.  I happened to be looking at the organist when Brother and Sister Fletcher's names were read in as new members last week.  I could tell she thought it was Delon with a new wife.  She was not happy about it.  I went up to her after and told her that the two were twins, and she said that she had looked them up on tools and already knew that.  Kind of a funny story.

So that does it for our week.  Dad will head up to the park for the final Concert in the Park for 2025. While I stay home and try to finish up my 18th book for the month, a new record for me.

Connecting with 40% of our Kids!!

So, we'll start this week with a bit of last week, on Saturday August 16th, when these two got married 18 years ago.

Now we can move on to Monday of this week when Van started school in Sugar House where they are living now.  He is in 2nd grade, having attended kindergarten from this house, and then first grade in India.  What an adventure.  He will never forget it.

Then we finally got around to taking the stack of temple pictures I'd acquired over the last year, that required us to sell the antique mantel from this wall to make room for them. The middle one of the Salt Lake Temple is embroidered and belonged to Aunt Cheryl. The other three central paintings were all purchased at DI, with the large one on the top of the temple Logan being found just last week.

This is the other wall of temple artwork, mostly paintings.

Tuesday night it was off to dinner and a movie at Nadine's

for a new Hallmark movie, that is the reinvention of modern relationships based on historical relationships that goes back and forth.  Kind of interesting.

On Wednesday I took a picture of this china cabinet at the shop.  Becca was asking about finding one like mine, and I contacted a guy in Texas who has a similar one, but with carved panels in the top instead of the windows that mine has.  In the end I have decided to sell Becca my European china cabinet and bring this one home from the store for our use. 

Shirley came by the store on Wednesday and brought some cute Christmas collectibles for me to sell to help fund raise for the new project Trevor's family is doing helping some people on a Navajo Reservation and building a home.  Shriley just loves the whole Navajo nation, collecting their art and rugs, so she was just tickled to help.

On Thursday, at work, I redid this corner adding 3 pictures, that's how long it has been since I have reworked it.

I also brought in my small collection of 5 trophies that I've moved around the living room for several years.  It's become cluttered, and something had to go.

It's hard to say goodbye, but it was time.

These two ran into each other at lunch!  They're workplaces are fairly close, so it's not surprising, just fun.  This is Trevor and Darby's significant other, Dallas.

Friday was a pillar to post kind of day for me.  It found me in the kitchen around 6:30 A.M., making pulla for the Finnish 'station' we would be sharing at a Primary activity the next day. Dad even had to take over to see that it got baked.  This is the picture he sent me to signal 'mission accomplished'.

Then it was off to meet Becca to stand in line at an estate sale in the Harvard Yale area.  Can you see the line across the diagonal of this picture.  We think about 500 people would pass through the house during the morning that day.

Here's the house, thanks for the picture Becca. 

Then guess who came along, our cousin Jordan who is married to Jared Larsen.  Becca helped them sell and buy a house earlier this year, its near Clark and Jo's house in Holiday, and they've been renovating the beauty and sharing it on Instagram. @ sprucing.the.pines .  Check it out.

She brought one of her employees, her name is Paula too.

Then I ran in Joanne, far right, and her friend Becky.  I got to the sale at 8:45, it started at 10, and I was able to stay until 11:00 because ...

I was to work at the Grove at 12.  This gal came in to buy boxes to hide remotes.  I loved the collection. We ended up have a fabulous sales day, and I got to meet a well know Instagram influencer. 

Meanwhile Dad took some aluminum cans to Zac and picked up some tomatoes and crookneck squash Ashley had picked to us.  These tomatoes are just tiny and bursting with flavor. 

Dad picked me up when I had closed the Grove, and we headed to Draper to see one of our missionaries playing Fiona in Shrek the Musical, as we mentioned last week.  These two Finnish missionaries were sitting right next to us, though we had Elias, Nenna and Penny sitting between us, so we didn't realize it until intermission.  They are Sam Ames and his wife Brianna Clayton, as was.

Here is Marion Pack, also one of our missionaries.

and again.

Loved this scene with the smooth molded plastic 'wigs'. 

The girls love the Donkey character.

And Penny got to meet a gal who works with her Dad and was the Associate Director of the play.

I thought Lord Facquard did a great job.

Elias making new friends.

Audience member.

How fun to see the girls looking taller than Elias.

and here we all are.  Marion's boyfriend is far right with the flowers for his girl on opening night.

You may remember this picture from last week when I was so pleasantly surprised to find that I owned a 3rd Utah artist painting.

Well, this week, on Thursday I found this original watercolor by Bess E. Gourley, also a Utah listed artist.  It was only $30 at Treasures.  So, I've had the two for 3 or 4 years, and last week I had 3 and it took a whole week to acquire another.  But then on Saturday Trevor brought me up to speed by telling me I own several Utah listed artists of the last 20 years variety.  Like Kristen Tye and Rick Shorten whose work I am looking at right now as I type this blog.  Hmm, who'd a thunk.

So here are the four of them.

On Saturday morning we headed out to be a part of this.

This is a picture of the Stake Primary Presidency.  The three 'bares' of Jesus are to "Bare his Name", "Bare your testimony of him" and "Bare the burdens of needy followers of Christ" or to serve.

We talked about baring his name to our fellow men in Finland.  There were also stops in Japan, and Malaysia. 

This is the opening part of the activity.

We brought Finnish licorice to share.

Here we are all ready to go.  Dad cut and shared the Pulla, as I told about how Finn's growing season was too short to grow wheat, and how they had to buy it from countries farther south to make their famous treat.

Rhea was the only one of the kids in our class who came.

This little girl's grandfather served with Dad on his first mission, his name was Jim Durrant.

It was also J Scott's birthday that day, and we were invited to come to his birthday dinner in PG.

Having Davin and Bri's kids made it extra fun.

Dad ran into the McBees who live in PG, and who both worked for him in Orem when he was the "Bishop of Macey's" where he had around 18 different marriages during his 'term' there.

Here we all are.  

And again, so fun to have Dave's kids along.

afterwards we went to Trevor and Nell's to have birthday cake.  This is Trevor's cool new arch covered walkway.  Lots and lots of work, but so beautiful.

Lou made the beautiful cake, here she is with the birthday boy.

Elias enjoys his piece.

As did the culinary artist who made it ... is that J Scotty in the back having some too?

Well, that was our week. As always Dad loved running into friends and connecting with family.  We hope your week was full of the things and people that you love as well.