The countdown begins as we prepare to say goodbye to neighbors and get to know some new neighbors.

Another week of wonderful friends and family. It started with me going to see Liesel at work, Making Space, I loved the subtitle "Craft and Fabric Rescue" (it is actually in the same building the Kew's Camera was in Provo but on the west side)

I thought this mini shelf of sewing goods was cute.

And here we are.  She is wearing the Marimekko top that I gave her after our farewell the day before.  I bought it from one of those places that buys pallets of misdelivered items, so it was brand new.  I bought it for the fabric, but just never got around to using it, and it got caught up in the "i don't have room for everything' cleanup that is going on here.  And voila' it fits her perfectly.

Elias got to celebrate his 16th birthday on Monday also.

I managed to get a letter off to our missionary that day too.

Happy Birthday Bekie, who turned 15 on Tuesday the 15th, her golden birthday.

On Tuesday evening we got together with Nadine for one last Hallmark movie night and Curry too.  Nadine grew up in Zimbabwe, as many of you know, and there was a lot of Indian Food, as the Brits love their curry, thanks to Queen Victoria's love of the fare there are more Indian Restaurants in London than in New Delhi.  Yeah us. She taught us the joys of eating it with bananas, cashews, raisins and coconut.  We watched The Senior.

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AI helped out with making this picture as I forgot to take one.

In fact, my friend Shirley, who is the person who taught me to use Chat GPT for making faux pics, just got back from Scotland, and made this picture ...

into this picture.

Then while I was at work on Wednesday Dad got together with Jussi Kemppainen for lunch and talked about Church history and finding out which ship the first Finn to be baptized was sailing on.

 

I ran across this video of a realtor who shares local businesses.

This is the first isle.

and this is my book booth.

I also ran across this picture of me 10 years ago, at the airport eating Cafe Rio in SLC before heading out on our first mission to Finland. Is that really me?  I did grow out my dyed hair on that mission and afterwards became vegetarian which led to there being only 2/3s of me left.

After work we went to Clair and Raylene Christensen's for dinner.  What a beautiful table. It was perfect eye candy, and the food was delicious.  She went to so much trouble to make things we could eat, and it was simply delightful.  We also go to know their oldest daughter Raquel, who reminded us a lot of Emily, so that was a sweet bonus.

Here we are ready for our feast.

At work on Thursday, a gal came in who is a decorator and who was doing a Mad Hatter Tea Party for a client.  I thought the little chest of drawers with the keys for handles was absolutely perfect.

And guess who celebrated their 16th anniversary just days after Bekie's 15th birthday. Yep, it was the Texas branch of the family.

On Saturday Dad took in a big donation of craft supplies and fabrics to Making Space and got to see Liesel again.

On Saturday, while Dad was working on the Wall, I was saving the Wisteria over the garden arch by pulling out Virginia Creeper. 

Another interesting fact as we help the church hit 90,000 missionaries, but mostly it was Eva and her friends.

I loved this picture of a ribbon shelf at the Art at The Park at This is the Place State Park.

I went with my cousin Debbie, on my right and met up with Dad's cousin Eric's daughter, Franchesca.  They are both our first cousins once removed.  Franchesca's job is to run the special events at the park, and she just happened to have her boys at work with her after school as their dad is traveling at the moment.  It was so good to see her, she is really a charming young woman.

As we were coming out, I thought that God's art was pretty amazing too.

Not to mention a homeowner who painted this mushroom mural on her fence on East 27th south.

Here's the secret garden phone case I am waiting for.

And here is Dad's work of art, it's the wall to our own secret garden that Dad has been working on. We're hoping to have pictures of the finished wall for you next week.  Wish us well.

After I got home, he put on the rest of the cinderblocks before heading to Trevor's to watch the BYU football team winning another game.

These are the pictures I bought at the Art at The Park, this one is a print.  I bought 3 paintings from the same gal.  This is my fourth or fifth time buying from her, I have a total of 9 of her paintings. I like some of the other work, but most were over $500 each, so I was unmoved.

This is the largest of hers I have ever bought.  I love her interiors, especially when they feature bookcases.

I actually went back to get this set of Tudor houses.  I moved things around so that they are placed above Shakespeare's Tudor house. I ended up spending $489.88 at the show.

In the hall after sacrament meeting, I noticed that Sandy Thomas' eyes are turquoise, I took this picture to show her.  Sooo beautiful.

Then in Relief Society Cristie Peterson gave out Forget Me Not seeds as a reminder to remember the Savior and his gift to us.  I thought it was a perfect reminder.

Here she is teaching.

We sat behind the Shumways (Scott and Haley) at church and found out that they live in Joel and Jane Johnson's house.  We made the old, I'll show you mine if you show me yours deal with them.

Here is their home, I was amazed at how big it is.  Four bedrooms, laundry room, and two baths on the second floor.  Plus, a bedroom, dining, kitchen, parlor and bath on the main. And the first butler's pantry I have ever seen in an actual old home. They also have a little house behind the main house that the people who built this house lived in while building the main house.  The owner between the Johnsons and the Shumways, actually added on 2 additions to the small house to make it bigger.  The lady who owned the house had one of her sons, his wife and 3 children living there. 

I love this incredibly fat book called Vitalology.  It was an old medical book that came down in Haley's family, and she loved reading it at her grandparents' house.  I'm wondering if this jump started her into becoming an obgyn.  What an amazing couple. (He got his nursing degree after his wife graduated)

So I decided to make them a portrait of their house, considering doing an actually painting for a hot minute before approaching AI.  Here's the progression.

I will frame this and give it to them before we leave.  How fun is that? 

The Feeding of the Five Thousand.

What a week, and it all started with the Payson Onion Days 5K at 7:00 A.M. on Labor Day morning. And our runners are Davin, Mckenna, Dad, Trevor Becca and Reagan.  Yep, 1,2,3 1 grandpa, 2 grandkids, and 3 kids.

So, while they were all running the 5K, I was at home making everyone breakfast burritos.  I was surprised that it took me three hours to make them all.

At the awards ceremony after the race.

Ra Ra Ra for the Perkins and the Summers

I was doing a house tour with a friend of Davin's and Hannah.  They loved my mushroom arch and each of them sported mushrooms, Hannah on her t-shirt and Baily as a tattoo. I guess the three of us make up the mushroom contingent.

Trevor took a shower after the race, Davin wished he'd thought of that and decided to tease Trevor about it.

Then we all gathered in the front yard and found seats for the parade.  Yes, Titan found a good strong branch ...

Much stronger than the one he put his foot on to get down.  Yep, these trees are disintegrating before our eyes.

Here a shot of the family in front of the house.  Not sure who took the picture but it's a beauty.

A bit closer up.

The teen contingent

Sherri and her family parked their bikes in the street to the south of the house to watch the parade, Sherri came over to visit and met Baily who immediately liked her, because everyone immediately likes Sherri. Baily asked how we met so I got to tell her the roundabout story of boarding horses with Sherri's sister-in-law, Margaret, who later came to my witch party one year, then the next year suggested her    S-I-L Sherri as a guest for the next year, who she knew I would love ... so many, many years ago.

Here are Sherri and Katie who rode their bikes from Sherri's house (where we hold flea.o.logy now)

The first kids stack of the week ... Madi cheers, Regan, McKenna and Mac.

Rosie and Penny

Trevor, Dad and Nell

Here are Becca's brothers embarrassing her. (Wouldn't Ben have loved this, and maybe Spencer too.) She has her head down on the corner of her 20th reunion 'float'. Interestingly President Kennedy of our stake presidency went to school with Becca and is sitting next to her.  Can you tell the boys had just pulled off their shirts and are lassoing them around in their right hands.

Becca's fellow float riders are like "Who the heck are those guys?", while Becca laughs, "Oh just my big brothers".

On the 40-year reunion float we see Kenton Phillips, the Stake President that dad worked with as his executive secretary for 11 months, Dad was released last week.

Another kids stack, same kids, different order.

Better and better, as Penny jumps in.

another kids stack view that features Brady, the dad of two of these kids.

On Tuesday we all wished Kai a Happy Birthday.  He is 24.

Also, on Tuesday I took Alysa to find a rocking chair for her room.  It took trips to 3 DI's before we found one small enough to fit.  The good thing is that this rocker also reclines.  She was over the moon.  We were looking for 4 things and got them all.  Small, Dark Colored, rocker and recliner action.  Here's the winner.

This is how AI imagined it would look in her room. In all it took us 3 hours, plus an hour of travel time, which was a big deal as Dad and I were getting the house ready for our Farewell today.

That night we went to dinner at Cafe Rio,

 and then to the Ruth to see Melissa Lalani Larson's hilarious play based on Pride and Prejudice.

At work on Wednesday, I met Nancy.  She is a Dane, who grew up in Sweden.  I told her of my admiration of the Danes, and the way they protected their Jews from the Germans.  She told stories of her uncle and aunts who were actually tortured in the defense of Jews they were hiding.  Her uncle had actually been captured as he took Jews to Sweden and was in a German Boat that was taking him to a concentration camp.  In the middle of the night, he took a deep dive off the side, deep and fast enough that the bullets fired into the water after him missed the mark.  He ended up treading water for 10 hours before a Swedish fishing boat picked him up.

Dad, meanwhile, was at home having a zoom meeting with other Church History missionaries in the Europe North Area.

On Thursday morning I framed a couple of pictures to use on my walls in our bedroom.  The little one in the upper right-hand corner is one I found at DI a few days after going to the Shakespeare festival. 

It was a matted print in cellophane for a buck, but I needed another cottage pic for this wall.  Its Shakespeare's home.

Then I decided to frame this print of a painting by Winston Churchill of the home he lived in as an adult for 30 years ... I cut it from the dustcover of a book about him being a hobbyist painter I am reading ... then it hit me that I had just framed two pictures of famous Englishmen's homes ... so funny.  I hope to see both, as they are both National Trust Properties. 

At work that day I saw that my friend Tiffany had painted Cheryl's hope chest that she bought from me last week at the garage sale, she fixed it up and was selling it.  I'm so surprised it came out so cute.

Here we see Alex's birthday collage for Friday.  And its 9/11.  There was a doctor who wanted to schedule an induction for Alex's birth on 9/11, but Brittany didn't want that to be her baby's birthday, so she declined.  Alex did not decline and chose that day to be born.  He is now 20 years old.  Happy Birthday.

BTW, my phone also took a deep dive this week (like the Danish man mentioned above), while I was in the bathroom on Saturday.  Hmmmm and as a result, I am missing some pictures for Thursday, Friday and Saturday, which I will add later, if all goes well.

On Friday we met up with Scott's cousins Jerry and Karen. They were the triplet cousins of their day, being born within two weeks. This is when we met up for lunch with them on Friday in Springville at La Casita.  We had a leisurely 2-hour lunch and enjoyed catching up. 

Here is a picture of two missionaries serving in the England Leeds mission, the one in the stripes is Lilly, who is Karen's granddaughter.  We hope to get to see her while we're out.

Here are another set of Missionary Sisters on the other side of the world.  Of course, it's our granddaughter Eva and her companion on Celestial Way, not surprisingly.

On our way home we stopped at the Springville Arts Festival at the park on Mainstreet, and I bought a couple of paintings.  This is me with the sister-in-law of Pat Alder.  I bought one of her paintings at the Art at the Park at This is the Place Monument State Park several years ago.  It was the most I had paid for a painting at the time.  It now hangs on the former door to the kitchen in the entry, under the painting of the Madona and Child that we bought in Bolivia when we got Dave from his mission.  I get so many comments on it.

 Here are the two little landscapes with a house that we bought from 2 different artists.  One was unframed and the other had the red frame shown with the artist above.  I needed to fill this space, and they fit almost perfectly in their matching frames.

Here is the larger wall.

I also got a print of this praying angel that I thought was sweet, but she's still waiting for a frame and a bit of wall space.

A last minute fleaology post

That evening Dad went with me to set up at flea.o.logy at Sherri's house.  Here is the set up that night, The whole set up

This metal sign had the perfect spot on the tree. I had several people ask to buy the 'crazy quilt' under the Christmas part of the set up.  I laughed, I thought it was real too, when I saw it at an estate sale.  Its fabric that was probably made from a photo of a great crazy quilt.  It got so much attention; I think I will keep it in my antique sale show stash.

The Christmas end of the table

There were also Halloween goods.

Azalia is Julie Smith's granddaughter.  She is showing of a shirt done by her mom, Heather, with whom I shared a booth. Heather is one of the top dollar sellers at Fleaology.

Here they are, three generations of creativity. Azalia, Julie and Heather.

This is Heather's booth

How cute is this jacket she made from a quilt,

Here's the front.

Here I am with Julie, with whom I served with at Mosida.

My friend Tiffany (Who painted Cheryl's Hope Chest) came as well.  She bought the copper mugs I am holding.

Here is Katie, our fleaology captain with her dad and son.

Dad met up with Janelle and Trevor to see the BYU game.  Dad and Nell's Dad split a season ticket, so that Dad could see the first two games before heading out.

Here they are in the stadium.

Hey it's Trevor and the Lincoln Guy.  It's always fun to see him out and about.

When Dad got home from the game, and I was all packed up from flea.o.logy, we spent the evening getting the carriage house ready for our little party to be held after our farewell the next day.

 Finally, it's the big day.  Here I am at the podium giving my farewell talk, thanks Madi for taking this picture.

Here is Dad at the pulpit.

Back at the house it was so fun to see old friends who had come.  This is the Shurtz, they served as the office missionaries in Finland for 18 months before us, then they came back and served another 18 months after we did. 

Bruce and Joyce came together to represent my siblings.  Clark and Jo had a grandson whose Homecoming was in the same time slot, and Shirley recently had back surgery, and is recovering.

Here are Liesel and Andrew Hale.  He served with us in the office, when he was an assistant to the president. I personally loved him because he helped me so much on the computer. His companion Elder Hall married another Finnish missionary named Gwyneth Allen.  Gwyneth is Liesel's twin and she served in Denmark.  We have stayed closer to these two, who are major world travelers and art collectors too.

Andrew and my brother Bruce show off their matching shining heads.

Here is the right side of the table, Teri and Gary, and the Heuers at the far end, then the Perrys, the Hales, Bruce and my sister Joyce and Nichole Eddie from the ward.

On this side we have the Colemans from our Cottonwood Heights ward, then the Dowdles, he was Dad's companion, next the Shurtz again, then the Rices from Mosida, the Masons and the Moes at the end.

It was great to see the Parkers, they were the leaders from our Mission at Mosida.

Becca's not so littles, play with the legos in the family room.

Here is Hannah and Scott with Brittany.  They had missed the farewell, as they had been to Scott's son Max's farewell at the same time.  We loved that they came over after. And Britt and her kids coming from Meridian was an absolute surprise, even though stalker Dad noticed they were heading down at 5:30 A.M.  Thank you all.

Dad's cousins Jerry and Karen came.

Mike folks came which was beyond delightful. We love Tom and Edi. I know they had fun seeing Britt's kids for a hot minute. She brought Kai and Charley.

Here are my kids in the dining room.

Trevor with Kai and Britt.  Notice their matchingish hair?

The bearded men.

And here's the max stack, or should I say the Mac Stack?

More of our beloved kids and grands.

A shot from the other end of the table in the carriage house.

The Rices from Mosida and the Perry's from our most recent ward divide. 

Me and Madi

The Hales and us.

Davin.

I found a Marimekko shirt for Liesel.

Mac's latest work of art.

The Colemans and us.

Our beautiful grand girls.  Descending are Mckenna, Charley, Penny, Reagan and Adi.

Britt says goodbye to Bruce.

I can hardly believe that Joyce who had her dialysis port replaced at the hospital on Tuesday, still managed to come down to say goodbye.  You can see the port on her chest here.  They tried to put one in her arm, last year when she started dialysis, but it was killing the circulation to her hand. They went back to the emergency port they'd put in her chest initially, and it lasted almost a year and a half.  What a miracle.  It was so good to see her. Thank you, Bruce.

Here we are with our first Mission President and his wife.  We did housing and cooking on that mission, and sister Watson worked closely with us on shopping and menus, so we got to know them both very well. Their most recent mission was working in the Africa Area office. They now help service missionaries to find meaningful assignments.

The Watsons really hit it off with our friend Nadine, who was born in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) and since the change of regime, her family members who did not move to the USA, moved to South Africa where the Watsons worked on their mission. They had friends in common. That was fun to see.

Here I am with the Rices.

And the Perrys are directly across the table.

Here we say Goodbye to the Hales, each with a Finnish treasure.

The Moehokins and friends. 

Here is a picture of Hannah and Scott with his son Max whose farewell competed with ours today.  So fun to get to see him.  He's living with them right now, so that his Dad gets some special time with him before he leaves.  I wonder if we'll see him in the MTC, he's headed for Hawaii. Poor guy.