Focusing on Grandchildren!

 On Monday I walked with LaVern in Genola as always, when I got home I did my Pollyanna Blog, then went to We Can, where we worked on decor for our Madder Hatter's Tea party tree for festival of trees.

Dad was home all day with a very painful leg, so in the evening I went to our family home evening group alone, while he rested.

 On Tuesday I had a surprise visit from Briahnna and the kids, which was a lot of fun ... McKenna is getting so big I can hardly believe it!

I also got a couple of pieces of furniture painted  for keeping DVDs in our bedroom, and another small chest for Aunt Cheryl's clothes in the family room.  Both were dark wood colored and it took me about 5 coats each to finish them up, but its nice to be better organized.

Dad worked a full day, and then did a temple shift, which is kind of surprising, but nice for him,

On Wednesday I got the seat cover on this black chair redone so that I would have something to list on our Reclaimologist site.  I managed to get it listed before heading to work, which was nice not to have to worry about it there.

As I got off the freeway on my way to work, I noticed the car was overheating, and by the time I drove the mile and a half to the store it was all the way to the top of the gauge, I hoped 8 hours of sitting time would cool it off enough to get home.  Dad said to fill the radiator with water, which I did, and he made an appointment with Joel.

As it turns out by the time I got on the freeway to go home it was in the danger zone, the next exit was for Spanish Fork, so I just drove it to Macey's,  and called Dad.  He said to call AAA and then came to give me a ride home, which was so extra nice.  Turns out the tow truck driver had gone to Mountainview and graduated the same year as Brittany and Andy!

 Very late that night, in fact the next morning, Britt and Mike came by and delivered their children for us to watch for 10 days ...  This is Charlotte the next morning, a bit off balance, and for two days any time someone came in the house, she expected to see her Mom, and was so disappointed.  (Kai is the one that actually pointed out to me what was happening.)

The boys settled in fine, which we knew they would, and Charley adapted a bit more each day.

 On Wednesday I had seen this cool use of an old type tray, and loved it ... and thought I might be able to adapt my 98 space type drawer using the various letters I had at the antique mall.

 So on Thursday I dug into my supply and put together the type drawer with my grand children's names.  As we have more grandchildren names will be shortened.  I think when Emily has her baby next March, we will make our Kimberly into Kim, that gives us 5 or 6 letters for the newest Tally, later we'll have Alex and gain another space with 5 letters.

 Dad watched the kids on Thursday while I worked, then went back to work on Friday.  You can see that Charley is warming up to us in her bath picture to the right.

 I walked up to the park with the kids on Friday, and they all seemed to enjoy swinging.  Dad got home early and was there when we got back to have lunch.

 I got Alex to help me out by watering the potted outdoor plants and the fairy garden!

 Briahnna and Davin came by and dropped off Elias and McKenna, while she took Addie to get her stitches out, it was super fun to see the kids all playing together.

Charlie loved it, she sat next to Kenna and kissed her on the head, over and over, it was just adorable.

 Alex was happy to share his cool army set with Elias, who really enjoyed it too.  Alex was so patient to teach him the 'correct sequence' for war too, who knew their was such a concise agenda for war?

When Briahnna got back, Elias discovered the rainbow on the floor, and we showed him how we could make it cross over our hands, that was pretty fun.  I love the rainbow making windows in our magical house.

 On Saturday I was up early to pick up Nell before 8:00 so we could go to the Fleattitude sale in PG.  Above is one of my favorite dealers, Two Pitts of  Pear.

After the flea market I met Nell and her girls at the soccer field for Eva's game ... it was so fun to watch her and to get to talk to Nell and Eleanor.

After the game I took Eva and Scott to DI, then brought them home to play with Britt's kids for a couple of hours before heading to Salt Lake for ...

 The Larsen Family reunion, which is always fun.

There was a splash pad and the kids loved that!

 This group shot is of the daughters of three of Clark and Jo's girls. To the far left is Jill's youngest Addison, being held by one of Kim's daughters, next to Kristin's youngest, Sam.

 There was also a pot luck dinner, hosted by Aunt Nina and Uncle Emory, which was very nice ...

 ... and a chance to mingle with the grown up cousins, here we see Bruce's son Jon with Trevor.

... and Kim's daughter with one of Jill's older girls.

Eva and Alex at the splash pad...

 I thought it would be fun to do a picture of Charlie with her second cousin (Andrew's youngest daughter, and one of his twins) since their suits matched! You can see they were not impressed by their matching swim attire.

 Doug's daughter Beth has a bit of her Dad in her, because she took charge of Charlie for quite a bit of the time.

I was fun to see Emory and Nina's son Jeff for the first time in a long time.  He is currently living in Salt Lake, and is shown above with Jill and John, Clark's daughter and her husband.

 Here Trevor talks with Jon and his wife Natalie.

 This is Sarah and her husband with her Dad, and my brother, Emory.

... and Emory and Nina's daughters, Mindy and Sarah, each with one of their daughters.

 ... and here are four of my cute sisters-in-laws, Jo, Dianne, Nina and Shirley.

 Here Clark and Bruce discuss something serious!

 Afterwards we drove by to see where they had demolished Grandpa Carlo's house ... kind of sad, and makes us wonder where Kelly ended up.  I don't suppose he will keep in touch.

 On Sunday morning, Dad took off for a Branch Presidency meeting with the branch he oversees first thing, then we got the kids ready and went to Kylie Moe's farewell talk in Highland.

As you can see, we went to the house afterwards and had a lovely lunch and a chance to catch up with her aunts and uncles who we don't see much.

Here is Dad with Craig and Gary Moe,  it was fun to realize that we knew Craig before he met Kim, and now their oldest in going on a mission, how fun is that?

We headed home for afternoon naps, before heading north again to see Scott get his rank advancement to first class scout and also 7 merit badges ... Dad, who got his eagle at age 13 1/2 thinks that J. Scott may beat his record.

After the court of honor, we headed back to Trevor and Nell's for milk shakes and cousin play time.  Dad and I also had a nice visit with Trevor and Nell!!

So that was our week.  The main event seems to be babysitting, which was fun, especially when we had more than one group of siblings at the same time.  We love seeing them make friends with their cousins.  Its just like the sign I have in the kitchen ...  "Grandma's house is where children go to make friends with their cousins!"

Dishes and Stitches and Bracelets, Oh My!

Yep, it was Monday again ... and this Monday was the first day back to work for Dad ...  I drove him up to Salt Lake after taking him to his doctor's appointment, and I was well rewarded because I found these 15 pieces of English transferware for $25 at the DI in Sugarhouse!!  Hip, Hip Hurray!

Then I picked up Dad after his half day, with his leg killing him ....

( You can see how well they will fit in with the rest.)

We stopped at Darby's on the way home so Dad could change out her new lock set and handle for the front door.  We had a nice visit, and got to get in some extra dog petting well, while  we were at it!

 On Tuesday morning Dad was off for his first half day on his own ... I got to see my morning glories in full bloom as I went out to walk with Ginny that day.

 While we were walking we saw the tallest Sun Flowers I have ever seen.  We have a nice older man in the neighborhood who used to be a farmer in Mexico ... he has this amazing half acre garden, that kind of reminds me of the kind of garden my Dad (and Dad's Grandpa Milt) used to grow!!  This Sunflower was honestly ten feet tall!!

Later I took Dad to Provo to get his car back ... again ... then did some visiting teaching while he went off to do his temple shift.

On Wednesday I was off work, because of a trade I did that another dealer needed. That gave me time to put together a charm bracelet for which I had been collecting elements for a year!  It was for my sister Joyce who loves copper ... and I was celebrating her birthday with her on Friday.  Other than that I did some cleaning, laundry and reading.

Thursday was a regular work day, and was a good sales day for me, in fact the last of a full month of good sales, fortunately, with all the over runs on the attic/roof.  That night Dad and I watched a TV show called Fixer Upper we've been trying to catch, which was kind of fun.

 So just as a little background, this is the professor I worked for for two years when I was in College at the U.  His name was John Legler.  So when I met Aunt Joyce at an estate sale of a college professor on Friday morning, I wondered for a split second  if it was his. Of course I think he was in his sixties 40 years ago when I worked for him, so probably not.

This abstract artwork in the basement seemed familiar too.  So when I found a brush with the name John M. Legler on it in the bathroom, I was not surprised, and immediately realized that the abstact art in the basement was actually an enlargement of a section of turtle head.  For two years I sliced up turtle heads and mounted the sections on slides, which I then dyed bright colors for him to study under the microscope.

 Here's my friend Susan with her haul out of the estate!!

Afterwards I got Joyce to have her picture taken with her street!!  Then a couple of other estate sales and some Cafe Rio, and giving her her gifts completed the date!!

That night Dad and I hooked up with the Kews for the Salmon supper!!

When I walked a plate of Salmon back for Cheryl, a guy was taking a picture of the house.  Turns out he's a sculpture and stone mason.  He said he had sculpted the oxen for the Nauvoo temple, and is currently working on the Payson temple, and was interested in doing some real sandstone masonry on the front of the addition.  He's working up a bid for us, wouldn't it be awesome if we could make it happen?

After the dinner we went to Kews for some movie torture, and actually really liked the funky Haute Cuisine, a movie about a woman who provided the President of France with some good down home cooking 'French' style for two years... I found it charming and Dad liked it too...

 On Saturday we considered going to the BYU stadium for movie night, but got a better offer from the Moes ... I kind of laughed when I found out that Trevor had taken his kids to the event!!

 Our better deal with the Moes, was dinner at Mi Rancherito and seeing The Fault is in Our Stars, which we also liked.

On Sunday we went to church.  Spencer and Brittney had her sister Angela there with them, which was fun.  She's in town working with Becca to find a house here, as she will be working in an elementary school in Utah County starting this fall.  She has been back in Virginia for a few years, but decided to come back west.

I taught Sunday School.  I am really working in my comfort zone now, as I have been teaching for almost 10 months.  I used to agonize about being sure I had the spirit with me when I teach, as I know what happens when I don't have it.  This lesson was on the mantle of prophet being passed from Elijah to Elisha.  I spent as much time reading and studying as usual, but never really got my 'aha'  ... I was a little worried, but prayed that the Lord would bless me with the spirit, and the lesson was fine.  In fact I had more compliments than usual, and I did feel the connection, that I have when I have the spirit with me.  I just didn't know I was going to have it ahead of time.

 As you can tell by the pictures we had family dinner at Davin and Bri's this week.  It was a lot of fun, though Adilyn was being tossed in the air in the kitchen at the beginning of the evening, and hit the ceiling fan.  She needed 5 stitches to close it, so Davin and Bri and she were gone for the middle hour and a half of the two hour event.

Becca and Darby spent part of that time checking out condos in Utah Valley for Darby, as she would like to move south to be closer to her job at IM Flash that she is loving.

 Spencer and McKenna had some serious bonding time too!!  She loved putting her feet on his beard ... maybe it tickled a little, but it was cute to watch.

 The gamers played some games and looked like they were having fun!

Addie came back, and seemed to be little worse for the wear ... she got stickers and fun band aids ... its hard to slow her down.

and Trevor seemed pretty happy by the end of the evening too!!  He and Spencer had even given Dad a blessing of healing for his DVT, which I know he appreciated.  I know I really felt the spirit myself, and it was a lovely blessing. Its good to know the Lord is aware of our little problems in the house of Perkins!!