Celebrations of Life.

With birthdays of four loved ones, a beautiful funeral, and one of the loveliest wedding receptions I have ever seen, we were immersed in focusing on milestones, all week, and it was lovely.

And it started with watching the celebration of President's Nelson's 100th birthday on Monday.  Dad went to Barbershop that day, and we both worked around the house.  He cut down a picture for me to frame, and I made him split pea soup, then he made me salsa.  I took some soup to the DeWitts, who are suffering from Covid again.  Her immune system is not the best, and she struggles so with health issues. I am sure they would welcome some prayers in their behalf from those of you who know them.

Loved the interaction of Sister and President Nelson as the balloons fell at the end.

On Tuesday I noticed the mushrooms around the stump of the big tree.  I know it's just nature's way of beginning the decay, but I think they are fascinating.  

 Dad got back to mowing.  It was his first time since his surgery, so thanks to those grandsons and their families who took over for pretty much the whole summer.

Then he had to fix the drive belt before he could finish it. 

I had plans to take a load of Halloween decor to the grove but after subbing my toe, harder than I ever have before, and icing it for almost an hour I was afraid it wasn't going to happen.  But I did manage to get back at it, as all that icing really did the trick.

Since I had to go through my old Halloween decor to find stuff, to take to the Grove, I put out that which I wasn't ready to say goodbye to. 

I even added a skeleton to a cloche on top.

I also put together this little crow and Poe vignette to sell, using items I'd gotten out.

Then it was off to the Grove, but I didn't get there until 5:30, but I really moved things around.

Putting together a couple of Halloween areas. 

Later adding in the little Crow and Poe piece. 

Here's the other area.  I was surprised how little I had to take out to make a fairly thorough change. It took me two hours, but the shop closed while I was working on it, and that helped a lot.

The next celebration occurred on Wednesday as Alex celebrated his 18th birthday. I love the picture of him with Kai on THE stump.

When I got to work on Wednesday, this is the first thing I saw as I turned on the lights.  The first thing I thought was that I was in an opening scene from a Monk episode.

But this is really how it goes between dealers at the mall.

Dad, as the administrator of the Friends of Helsinki Finland Missionaries got a kick out of this post.

And Ian got a kick out of this. It's his first car. What a beauty. It's a 2019 Honda Civic.

And while Ian is enjoying his new car, on the other side of the earth Spencer and Brittney will be enjoying their new car, which they bought from the Canadian Ambassador who is headed home.  Way to go.

And Trevor got Surgery that day ... a 2 for the price of one as far as the anesthesia goes. One team repaired his deviated septum, and another team took care of some minor issues on his back.

I know, it looks like something from a horror movie, but it was all worth it, as he said he can breathe better, even with his swollen and bleeding nose, than he can ever remember being able to breathe.  Wow, were happy that's behind him.

I took in a twin to this antique hat rack to the store on Thursday. The one I had had part of the top broken off, so Dad cut it down even with the two sides. I bought it a Savers for $8, I was just floored at this price.

Also at work that day, we had a customer come in to put an item on layaway.  She checked her balance when I told her what the computer chooses for her down payment and started laughing.  It was exactly the same amount.  Really, what are the odds?

On Friday we headed to Saratoga Springs to celebrate the life of this great lady. Dad did not remember that we share names.

And first there is Jackson. This is Daniel's little boy who looks soooo much like his mom's brother, shown  on the phone.  Hard to believe they're not the same kid. And Luceil's funeral begins. 

Here is Dad with her two boys, Mike and Jeff.

Here are the two grandmas of the baby shown.  Brigette, on the right, is Mike's wife. 

This is Eric with his Uncle Mike ... I think Eric said what we were all thinking, when he got up later when the grandkids were called upon to come up and share an experience with Luceil.  He said, "I was not a direct descendant of Luceil's but I felt like I was." Which is exactly how I felt, she was so gracious and kind to everyone, always taking a special interest in what was going on in your life, that you felt special.  Thanks for putting it into words Eric. 

Here is Chris and his family, Lily, James, Chris and Ginger.

And here are Tammy, Katrina and Barb, with Terry, Gary and Dad behind in the Relief Society room during the viewing. 

Lisa and Rupert.

Robin's bachelor boys Caleb and Matt with their cousin Kim from Texas

Kim's baby sister Ali, who we have known all her life, with her new husband, with whom she had been friends for 15 years before they married.  I was so impressed with this young man, he is so friendly, and willing to jump in and help at a moments notice.  What a lucky couple. 

Robin's second youngest, Ben with his wife Calista. 

Brandon with his dad Randy.

During the service most of the sons, grandsons and grandson's-in-law of Luceil's. 

During the closing song of the service, most of Luceil's descendants went up and sang the first 2 verses of Silent night, then the audience joined them for the 3rd.  The extended family always sang carols on Christmas eve, and ended with Silent Night, her favortie.

The whole funeral was a wonderful tribute to a great woman.  I loved it.  Robin wrote a thoughtful and heartfelt obituary that was perfect. 

The Nelson girls many years ago.  They are Linda (Who we met for the first time) Velta (Randy's Mom) Luceil (Jeff's Mom) Lori (The one we didn't meet in Tahoe in 2018) and Loah (Briahnna's grandmother)

We stayed for the luncheon and got a chance to visit with more of the family.

Here's Velta with all her boys, Randy, Craig, Kevin and Gary.

Rupert, Kim (Craig Moe's wife) and her daughter Alisa, (who was also celebrating her birthday that day) with Lisa, Bri's Mom ... by the way we missed Bri because she was home nursing a household full of Covid victims.  I just thought it was a fun grouping as they were chatting in the hall. So, in case you forgot, Lisa is a first cousin to Randy and Jeff.

And here is her middle child Broc, who along with his wife Brooke, are expecting a baby to be born next year. I'm suggesting they name the baby Breck, which works for a boy of a girl.

And here is Dad with the oldest and youngest of his family girls.

This is a picture of Mike, Jeff and David Heuer and their wives. David is a half-brother to the other two. 

Here we have Gary and Terri Quigg, Barb, Mike and Brigette.

This one is Krista, Trina, Randy and his brothers.

Then, Last but not least Becca and Trina. 

We had about an hour after we got home before heading up to Peteetneet for Kiley and Josh's reception. Her family is in our ward. 

Here they are with her parents, Becky and Keith Murphy.

They had a fun photo booth.

These treats were almost too pretty to eat. 

I love the raspberries for decor on the cake. 

How fun is this dragon topper. 

We celebrated Elias' birthday on Saturday, it's hard to believe that he is 14 (and it was his golden birthday that day) ...

Also on Saturday, Elias' grandmother Lisa, drove to Idaho for her Aunt Luceil's burial in Rupert, where 

she and her younger brother Lowell played at the grave side services.  If her husband came along too that means that Rupert was in Rupert!

And look who else was in Idaho on Saturday?  Darby drove up to join Brittany at this show. Brittany had given Darby these concert tickets for Christmas.

And speaking of Idaho, guess who else was up there?  Trevor and Nell were there for her sister Leslie's wedding.  Yeah Idaho!

Nell, Trevor, Leslie and her new husband, Cody, with her two kids, Tami, Tom, Sarah and her husband, Jared.

The new family.

Nell and Trevor. 

For us it was art show time.  We'd been invited to two different shows, this painting was at the one in Woodland Hills by J. Kirk Richards, there were 7 artists involved.

But this gal, whom I bought from at the last show I went to, was at the Art in the Parks show at This is the Place State Park where we chose to go and browse through around 40 artists' works.

I love this painting, but have not got pockets deep enough, nor wall space plentiful enough.  She did agree to make me an 8" x 10" print, for which my pocket and wall space suffice.  It's called 'going to church' and is of her grandparents in the early 1900's.

We bought this print of the Logan temple for our Prophets and Temple room.  Also, a small landscape to balance out a grouping in the dining room, and an unframed painting of a landscape which includes a house, yet to be framed. 

And since we are on the subject of art, as we so often are, this is my cousin Royal.  I had pinned a search on Ebay because I'd like an original painting by him, but this show catalogue came up for auction, and if it hadn't been $50, I might have bought it.  Alas here's a few screen shots for those in the family who are interested in such. Enjoy the artwork below. 

And here's another working artist.  He painted the windows on either side of the fireplace in the Carriage House the green of the carriage doors and shutters and is shown here caulking them. I am on the inside painting a lovely French Provencial hope chest the green of the chairs.  The more storage the better, right?

Then I made a pumpkin pie to thank my boss (his favorite) for taking care of two big issues I was involved in at the store this week, computer issues that is. It was an interesting two days.  And since there is enough pumpkin in the can for two pies, and I'm trying to eat healthy, I made this healthy version, with fake sugar, and lots of flax seeds to thicken it.  The crust in Raisin bran and oats, and well, butter, so not entirely healthy. But Dad said he liked it almost as much as pumpkin pie. 

And now for today, it's Bekie's thirteenth birthday.  We hope she is enjoying every minute of it, in her new house, with her own bedroom.

So, our Primary class continues to grow.  You may recall that we've had six girls since we started, then a month ago we got a set of girl twins who moved in with family, then we visited the only boy on our roll and who we invited to join us in a visit last week.  Well, here he is, but to make it even more fun, the Primary President's granddaughter, who is also 8, will be here for a few months, and since it was her first time, her 6 year old brother, who didn't want to go alone to his own class, joined us today ... so we had 10 children in class today, only because one of the regular girls was out of town.  Whoa. 

So, meet Jacob, aka Samuel the Lamanite.