The King of the Roost and Birdie Flies Home

While working in the yard on Monday, my neighbor's chickens came over to visit.  Here is the king of the roost. He had a lot to say.

He and his girls were all hanging out in the garden.  Notice the empty pillars on the sides of the gate.

Dad and I went off to have our dental papers for our mission filled out.  For me that meant a cleaning.  Afterwards we were visiting with the receptionist.  Her name is McKenna, just like ours.  She's said she was from Santaquin but moved to Payson when she married a Payson guy she met on Trek!  Yep, as it turns out after Covid she went on a trek with her stake, and this guy was invited by someone else.  Dad and I were there for the Trek's preview Hoedown, and for the trek too.  How fun is that.

I had a nice visit with Dave and his girls that evening, after Dad headed to Barbershop.

Look how nice my gate posts looked after they left.  So beautiful.

On Tuesday, because Geniel had been messaging me that Todd, the previous weekend, quit breathing and had been rushed to LDS hospital by ambulance. I thought I'd better get in touch with Alysa and take her to see him.  Geniel managed to lead me to believe what she believed that he may not make it.  As it turned out we visited for 2 hours and had nary a minute with him alone, as his nurse came in 2 or 3 times, his Speech and swallowing specialist came in several times, as well as two different phlebotomists.  They were releasing him, against Geniel's advice.  But we managed bits of visiting and felt like he was going to be ok.

Look at the site of his IV.

As it turns out he was back in the hospital the next day, but in the IHC hospital in Murray, so please keep him in your prayers. (Though they seem to have a better command of things at the Murray hospital.)

It was also Ian's birthday on Tuesday and he turned 25.

That night Dad and I met up with the Stake President to finish up our mission papers.

Happy Birthday to me said with such panache with the gifting of this bouquet of all my favorite colors. They also happen to be the colors that I am painting my factory spools, and Dad's custom-made spools too. (What you don't see is that he used packages of sugar free chocolates to fill the bottom and bring the colors to the right height.  I thought it was so clever, and I don't mind the sugar free chocolate addition either.)

He posted about all the hats I've worn during our marriage in his post about my birthday that I thought was the most moving tribute I have ever read.  What a good guy I got.

At work on Wednesday I cleared out this display, putting some things in my half price booth, so that I could move all my 'whites' out of my Haberdashery Booth to make room for more sewing display items.  Did you know that in the US Haberdashery has come to mean a men's clothing store, but in England it means the sale of small useful household goods, like ribbon, thread, yarn, lace and sewing implements.  Yep, given my tenancies toward Anglophilism, I thought it was the perfect name for this booth.

This is the cabinet I took the whites out of, and which now houses spools of haberdashery supplies.

On Thursday I worked again, and Dad served at the Temple as usual.

First thing on Friday, as Dad and I were cleaning house we saw picture indicating that Eva was back in the good old USA

So happy to be reunited with her friend Jersey Mike.

After more cleaning and some cooking chores, we got to enjoy more pictures.

As she arrived home at the SLC Airport.

Being greeted by family was wonderful, I had almost forgotten we called her Birdie as a little.

Here she is with her Dominican Republic Compatriots, at least those that flew home via SLC.

Welcome home darling girl.

That night we got to enjoy the fruits of our labors that day, as we welcomed the three Christensen siblings who live in a row on 3rd north in the ward, along with their spouses, and the Thatchers, who used to live across the street from them all.  Gary Thatcher is the Doorknob photo collector who came by sometime last month.

Here we see the lengths (or Heights) that Dad goes to in order to get pictures of old people without highlighting their turkey necks. 

First thing on Saturday Dad came with me to do some tweaking of my Haberdashery.  This black metal shelf was my spice rack in the kitchen before I decided to put up the faux Dutch tiles.  I thought it would be perfect to contain my cellophaned lace wraps. In order to install it we had to move a filled locked cupboard about 6 inches.  Then moving another display that far to keep the opening to the booth wide enough to be inviting.

I added these spools onto this spool rack above the lace cards and managed to sell 10 of them before the day was done.  Not a problem it's fun to make them when we watch the Midsomer Murders many evenings.

Here's the total display.

And I moved other elements around, like this short stand that was in front of other shelves.

Now next to the pro, you see how I filled the space below.  Thanks again Dad.

And I almost have this display of spools of lace and ribbon filled.  Dad is still making me more of these spools, but at least the end is in site now.

We headed home for a few hours, so Dad could make brownies and I could take a chair nap.  We headed north again, to pick up my check at The Grove.  Here we see part of a new display Jennifer put together.  She changes it out every month, and she actually works on Saturday so we got to chat for a bit for the first time in person in about 5 months.  Amazing since I actually work for her.

Then we met up at Mi Ranchito with my cousin Debbie so we could celebrate our birthdays. Mine is the 14th and hers is the 19th, so we decided to make a tradition, and get together while we are the same age during those 5 days every year. We just love her so much, what a great example she always is to me.

And just for fun I thought I'd share this business name done up via AI I was considering before I chose to call it the Haberdashery.  This actually means Castle of Hats.  The funny things is that there actually is a castle by this name, that made me laugh.

I also took these pictures of my Great Grandmother Ida Alice Dorris and 

With the help of AI making them into portraits.  I thought they were pretty good.

Today in Primary, my teaching partner did a great job with the Walls of Jericho and the Arc of the Covenant.  The kids had a blast.

Here she is, and you can see how engaged the kids are.

Now we're headed to a Mother's day, my birthday and welcome home Eva bash.  Come back to see pictures of the fun.

M is for Mission (prep)

These two celebrated their 13th wedding anniversary on Monday.  Congratulations to them.

I spent literally the whole day moving items out of this booth.  I am letting the booth space go as part of our preparation for our mission.  I red-lined everything I left in the booth and moved some items into the booth in anticipation of marking the booth half price.  

I had had a locked case in this position, but with the changes moved it out of the booth with Dad's help.  I actually didn't add the green half-price sale tags until I worked in the booth for another couple of hours on Tuesday, after my visit with Alysa.

By the time I worked my regular day on Wednesday, I had sold one of three big display pieces that I'd marked low.

Here's our Alysa, a little down, but I told her she had been doing so good for so long, that there are always going to be setbacks, and now she is moving forward again.  Her Grandfather Harry passed away later in the week, and in our texting, I could tell it hit her hard.  Harry would have been 100 in September, and what a good man.  I am so glad that we got to see him a couple of years ago, when we went to see Julie near the end of her life.  Looking at this picture of Alysa, it really reminded me of Julie, probably mostly because Julie used to dye her hair this color.

In other sad news not only has Alysa's mom been in the hospital for a couple of weeks, yesterday (Saturday) her Dad went to the hospital in SLC, because he had quit breathing.  He is stabilizing some, but it would be good if you could remember him in your prayers.

Tuesday evening Dad and I went to work with the Bishop on our papers.  Dad's been hard at work, and he is so excited about this mission, I almost feel guilty that I didn't give in sooner.

This is the picture that he chose to be our official mission picture.

Meanwhile, I have been busy getting lots of stuff out of my craft room and to the mall.  Here I am rolling red lace onto a spool that Dad made me.  He estimates that he has made me something around 40 spools.  Yep, no one could ask for a more supportive spouse.  I know I am spoiled.

We missed putting in this picture of the Stake Presidency last week during Stake Conference, so I thought I would put it here.  Dad, 1st Counselor Alan Davis, President Kenton Phillips, 2nd counselor Thayne Kennedy and Stake Clerk Micheal Bridenbaugh. 

and this week on the Grandkid front we have Kai still hiking the Pacific Crest trail, where he is something like 650 miles into the trail.

You can see how much he loves it all.

Kimmy being her normal cute self. (E)

Penny at the Hope of American extravaganza!

And Eva, of course is seeing her adventure teaching in a preschool in the Dominican Republic coming to an end this week. 

She has come to love this small people so much.

The Talleys in Texas used the Zoo pass they bought with their Christmas cash from us, to celebrate Benny's birthday.  That always makes for some happy kids.  What a great Zoo.

On Friday we hopped to, getting our mission physicals out of the way. 

Then Dad and I met up with Kimbery and Clark, as well as John for Mexican food in American Fork.  John, whose wife passed a couple of years ago, is now living with his daughter in Eagle Mountain, so the Sevys, who are headed out on another mission, this time to New Zealand, thought we should all get together. The three of them were all besties starting in fifth grade and were chumming around through high school. 

While Dad took John home, after lunch, he dropped me at the AF DI, where I found Sue Grafton's book, P is for Peril.  I laughed because I just finished reading it, and it is the last of her 25 books for me.  I have been reading them for over 15 years, I'm a little sad to be done with Kinsey Milhone.  But I hear they will be making her novels into a new series. Sounds fun to me.  

That night I picked up Barb's Sister-in-law Bev to serve as an extra at our Salem Library, Lit quiz night.  It was super fun to get to visit with Bev, as it has been literally years, maybe 10 years since we've seen her. We had a blast but managed to still come in in last place. Alas.

And then there is this book ... which lead us to our new mission opportunity, but it seems it is the book that keeps on giving.  Because, someone ordered one of these books, but they are all gone.  Darwin the author called Dad to say the daughter of a Finn in SLC, wanted a copy to give her mom for mother's day.  Dad had given the last copy to the BYU professor, as he had been directed, but he had written nothing in his own copy.  He ordered a new one for us, as they are printed on demand, and made arrangements to deliver it when he went to SLC on Saturday.  He found out the buyer was the daughter of our good friends (we bonded in Finland during covid when seniors were not allowed to leave their houses, and we played Zilch and card games on face time for entertainment.)  They were the first people we saw when seniors were allowed to have visitors too.  Anyway, Eliisa and Richard Smith's daughter, lives two doors down from Bruce's son Jared and Jordan his wife and are good friends.  Except, unknown to us, J and J have now moved into The Pines, so they are no longer neighbors (Phil and his family now live in Jared and Jordan's old place) but they are still great friends.  Oh, how Dad loves making these connections.

On Saturday Dad and his chorus participated in the Wasatch Choral Summit, along with choruses of other types for some specialized coaching.  He did get a change for a visit with Spencer family afterwards, so he came home a happy camper.

I received this lovely surprise while he was gone, from Darby who remembers the days when I often wore one to church on Mother's Day, thanks sweetheart.

Here is Dad's post honoring me on FB for mother's day.  I was very touched.

Then he surprised me with breakfast in 'bed', this morning for Mother's Day.  Since the roof comes down to within a foot of the head of our bed, there is no actual eating of breakfast in bed, but eating it in my recliner is every bit as good.

Look what a stellar job he did.

After breakfast Emily facetimed as her kids went to church, telling me happy mother's day, and sharing their favorite part of the week we spent with them in Texas.

This week we also got the top picture of portraits hung, shown here, in the parlor.  I had to frame her myself after buying her a couple of weeks ago at the Acorn Antique show.

I also added the small mushroom painting that Trevor and Nell brought us after we watched their kids while they did a quick trip to Europe last month.

Then this afternoon, Nell and Trevor came by with this electronic photo frame that we are going to love on our mission.  Trevor also made me a bracelet out of old English 5 Pence coins from coins he brought home from his mission.  You can't imagine how delighted I am with that. Brittany, Ashley and Emily also went in on the frame.  Thanks to all for a wonderful mother's day.

I also received a nice phone call from Brittany catching me up on their lives. 

Here I am wearing the corsage from Darby, Dad thought it would be the perfect spot, with almost all my kiddos.