The cutest Grand Kids and More

And this is how our week started, a bit like being in Finland.  We met with the Smiths to play games, 10 A.M. for us and 7 P.M. for them.  You may note all the Pioneer Womanish dishes that I have laid out on the dining room table, ready for pricing, that didn't happen until Saturday. 

Afterwards Dad went out to get the mail and saw that we had been Heart Attacked, probably on Saturday or Sunday, but we go out through the garage, so didn't notice.  How nice is that?

Then I dropped Dad off to work with Darby on her basement.  I snapped this great shot of myself, with a wrinkle star on my neck when I was making a one year congrats video to our friend Tom in Finland on the occasion of the first anniversary of his baptism.  I was sitting in a thrift store parking lot at the time. Its hard to believe its been a year, but his was the last baptism we attended before Covid made them all private affairs.

Then I headed to Capitol City Antiques down town, this is my friend and former fleaology associate, Cathie's booth there, I heard that she now works a day or two a week.  She is just so talented.

While I was shopping Phil Lewis called, to say he had gotten a book I had sent him when I was using up all my stamps in Finland.  We had a nice chat, and when he asked to facetime, and saw that I was shopping, he ended the conversation.  But it was super fun to talk to him about our hopes to drive up one day this summer, and spend a couple of nights with Britt in Boise, before heading to British Columbia after the borders are open for a nice visit.  We are looking forward to seeing the Butchart Gardens in BC that we missed when we went to pick up Spencer. 

I thought this dealer's robots were a lot of fun,

I also really liked this display of chef salt and pepper shakers.  I was so tempted to buy the COOK letters, and paint them red and put them up on the brick wall over the window in the kitchen, but I resisted.  I really am trying to not go too over the top.

Then I hurried to meet Dad and Darby at IKEA to have dinner there.  I had the veggie meat balls, Darby had the other kind of meat balls.

We hope this coming week to op at IKEA on our way home from a day of Darby helping, to buy ourselves new pans ... I know, I know, I have loved my cast aluminum pans so much I gave back a beautiful set of pans once ... now I am convinced that aluminum pan cooking may contribute to Alzheimer's. ... I may be slow, but I can be taught.

Next we headed to Becca's which would be our home away from home for most of the week. This is their new kitchen.

We would be watching these munchkins while their parents attended a Keller-Williams Real Estate conference in Moab.

Darby who is missing human contact as she works and does schooling on line, came by for some munchkin snuggling.

The munchkins seemed to enjoy it too.

On Tuesday, Dad and I ran down to the house to work on some projects there, after we came back we fed the kids, played with paper airplanes, and told Sarditart stories.

As well as some group hugging.  Man Mac's hair has a mind of its own.

I thought the girls Minni shirts deserved a picture of their own.

On Wednesday I had my first day back at work.  It was so crazy, and sort of tiring, since I am not used to the routine.  Many things about the routine there have changed, like taking my temperature and texting a picture of it to the boss.  We also wear masks all day, and require them of customers.  We sanitize continually, and keep space between ourselves and our customers. 

 

Dad finished up putting a floor in the bottom of the sink cabinet in the basement apartment, since that is one thing the restorationists missed. It took Dad the better part of two days to get it all done.

The next day he got the new cupboard doors on the storage spaces in our bedroom painted, since we had used the doors from our above sink cabinet in the kitchen for this use.  Then needed them to cover the new draining cupboard.  Fortunately we had this set of new cabinet doors, that had been left behind by renters at some point, kicking around the garage ... see sometimes it pays to save junk.

We were also keeping in contact with Emily and Sam in Texas during the historic snow storms there. They did loose power, so that it got down to the mid forties in their house.  They kept water running, and when they did have power they boiled water to flush into the septic system.  Fortunately for them, Sam's folks live next door and they have a propane tank, so the two families spent a lot of time together.  

Its kind of funny that when Emily came to Utah, when we came home, she brought all her sweaters and her usual coat, which she actually left here, because she never needed anything but a sweater.  Then she went home, with not coat, to this craziness.  Fortunately she had never tossed her fur coat she got when she lived in Russia, yeah that!!

Their munchkins have not idea that this is a crisis.  All they know is they get school off, and Dad's home, and there's lots of snow time, and grandparent time.  Sam's one brother had pipes freeze, and burst. His PG wife walked out to potty at 1 AM one day, and found four inches of water in the play room.  Oops.  Their water is off, and they are drinking bottled water, while melting snow to flush the toilets.  Dang.

Meanwhile back in Utah, Madi is all dressed to go to school ... then the Nanny comes to watch Mac and Dad and I head south.  I worked again Thursday and Dad caught up on more chores in Payson.

Becca and Brady, meanwhile, enjoy the conference classes, camaraderie and weather in Moab. Dad picked me up on Thursday from work, and since Becca and Brady had come home a bit early, that was the end of our babysitting in Highland for the week.

On Friday, we took the old rolling cupboard that was in the kitchen before the change, to the mall, along with a few other things.  I had to do some real rearranging to fit them in, but I was pretty pleased with the effect.  Still a lot more things to take in, but its looking up.  On the way to lunch we stopped at DI to find some black flats to replace the shoes that were to heavy to bring home ... I found them, by the way, AND Judy Riemschissel too... she painted her own mask.  Is that so cute?  If she had used a flesh colored mask she would look like a cartoon character.  So fun.  Judy was a regular dealer at Fleaology, back in the day.

Lunch was built around the fact that our oldest grandson, Ian, happens to work at the Cubby's in Spanish Fork.  Dad had stopped and visited with Ashley the day before, after going to lunch with some old work chums in American Fork at Mi Rancharito.  Ian was there and mentioned his new work, so we headed over. 

We had the most amazing salad there, though we missed that it had chicken and had to dig it out ... it was a quinoa and kale salad, so yum, with craisins, apples and almond slivers.  I had made my version with bulgar by the next day.  So yummy.

after we got home, my friend Sheri showed up with a welcome pineapple.  She is just the sweetest. 

Then she took me to this new vintage shop in Spanish.  What a fun impromptu outing.  

That night, because we were picking up a bed I'd bought in Eagle Mountain, we made arrangement to hang out with the Heuers and Moes.  Jeff showed us the cool memorabilia that his work gifted him after his cancer surgery.  Wow, what a supportive workplace.  They had enough of the personalized t-shirts made for his extended family, and the shoes are hand painted, and also very fun.

Eric stopped by too, and Jeff's mom, Luceil made us all corn chowder, and Robin made cornbread also.  It was so fun to chat.  The corn chowder is a family recipe she got from her sister.  (One of her sisters is Briahnna's grandmother)  They are all such gracious women.  Of course Randy's mom is also one of Luceil's sisters) 

BTW I took this picture because I love Eric's t-shirt as well.

We did family history facial recognition apps, and Robin found these two pictures, and thought they were the same man... we all shared opinions about the likelihood, which just goes to show you that when you love people this much, doing ANYTHING is fun.  (this year marks the 30th anniversary of our friendship,)

I thought this unlikely art was charming, really sculpture I guess.  Robin's sister Debbie got it for her.  So fun, and graphic.

On Saturday, after spending three hours on our respective talks for church, Dad and I went to help with the moving of a local thrift/pantry store across the street.  We shelved a bunch of bedding, and here I am shown tying up fabric pieces, 

While Dad cuts ribbon with his fingernail clippers because no one knew where there were any scissors.

Here's a section of the new store ... they have to be out of the old store by the end of the month, so we may end up going back to help some more. 

Today we got to speak in church.  Our friend Gyula Horvath, in Finland, took a picture of his TV, so it was fun to actually see what it looked like.  We were assigned 7 minutes each.  I took 8 and Dad took 16, but in his defense, he needed that much time to verbally paint the picture of what the church is like in Finland.  We were the only speakers, and even  the sacrament, which is done after the camera is turned off, was done within the hour.

The Rantaniemis attended Sacrament meeting for the first time here, and since Rolle had on a Finnish Mask too, I thought a picture was in order. (He and his new bride are our tenants in the basement apartment now.) 

Three of our children et al, were able to meet at the house for Navajo tacos afterwards, and others watched the meeting online. 

We all wore masks, except while eating.  Being extra careful is very important because Nell is still having chemo treatments.  We hope you will all continue to pray for her. 

Doesn't Eva, center, just look like another adult?  Well, she will be fourteen this summer, so that should not be surprising. 

More cute kids pic.

and just when I had decided to get rid of the tin doll house ... Mac saves it from demo.

We all went upstairs and the kids tried out the massage chairs.  It was so fun to sit and chat with them,

Darby heads out first.

We missed having Spencer and his family, but we know how important it is for them to be safe too.  Here he is with some pictures of Cam to celebrate her fourth month that I stole off her mom's Insta page.  Isn't she the cutest?

and happiest too.  We can't wait to meet her.  

Virtual hugs and kisses all.  We love you and pray that you are safe and happy.

 

Egads, Checks, Dots, Plaids

So here we are back to our normal perkinsperhe blog.  It seems crazy.  On Monday, as I was writing last weeks blog I heard a huge crash, and jumped up and ran out onto the balcony to see this is my front yard.

I went down later, and everyone was OK, but the car stopped about ten inches shy of the fence.  My heart pounded for several hours afterwards.  It make me wonder about people who have PST. 

I did work on unpacking, once the blog was finally done, and found these two plaid pillow covers that I had brought home, after having them in our apartment in Espoo.  I thought they looked nice with the plaid log cabin quilt that Grandpa Carlo used in the care center before he passed away.

All of the guest beds had been stripped, so I made them up.  See there's even a polka dots Scottie Dog at the foot of the bed.

On Tuesday, while Dad was working on adapting the cabinet above the kitchen sink to install the Finnish drying rack, the Vests surprised us.  It was so nice to visit with them.  They served with us on our first mission to Finland, going out with us on the same flight, and coming home on the same flight.  You may recall that we found out that Rowene is Dad's cousin on the last day of our first mission.

It was a lot of work for him to put in the racks because the cupboard was wider, and not as deep.  He did a great job, and I think it looks nice. Of course the racks are great, we loved them in Finland both times, and even tried to get the racks at IKEA after our first mission.  That's why Dad was so happy you all gave him that huge suitcase, because it was tall enough to fit the racks this time.

While he had the paint out, I went over the nicks and scratches on the cabinets that always occur around knobs etc.  I was surprised how much better it looks after the touch up.  We were expecting the Moes for dinner the next day, so we were trying to get the kitchen looking presentable, as we were in the midst of changing out the Pioneer Woman's bright color scheme and bringing down the red and white that I have had in our Master suit since we built it 6 years ago.  I love the colors together, but it does not make for a restful bedroom.

We took Subways to the Kews, so that we could get together, for lunch that day.  They have been very, very careful about staying away from people.  We enjoyed catching up, though talking about their son Christian's passing, and upcoming funeral was emotional, we remembered them coming and doing the same after Ben's death.  

That night we went over to pick up our mail, and our new bread mixer from Trevor and Nell's. They had let us know about a great deal on line, and since I had become hooked on the bread mixer in our missionary apartment, we were on board. We got a chance to visit shortly, and saw several of their newly acquired art pieces.  I loved these four, especially.  Eva did the upper left hand corner work.  She is so amazingly talented.  We loved seeing the kids too. 

My cousin Beki posted this picture on Facebook, I had never seen.  It is Thomas Benjamin Clark's home.  I wish I knew what the address was, though I imagine it has been torn down, since it would have been built in the 1850's or so.

This is me on Wednesday still unpacking and sorting. Of course a few things had been broken in our luggage, so here I am with my E6000 putting Humpty together again. Of course the tin was not repairable.  Another tin, right next to it, brought home a demitasse cup and saucer safely, this one evidently took a direct hit.

We had a great vegan meal with the Moes that night.  Its so fun when your friends are also eating the plant based whole food way.  They seemed to enjoy the offering, West African peanut chickpea curry.  Its one of Dad's and my favorites. Then we tortured them by playing hand and foot with what turned out to be incomplete decks.  Oops.

On Thursday we went over to Treasures.  I will be back at work this week, and needed to check out my booths, and find out what I need to do to be prepared for the new protocols.  

I thought this store display by Kathy was cute, and it was fun to see a few items of mine included.

We stopped by the White Willow, where Ben Heuer is soon to be married, to celebrate with Rolle and Kiki, our new basement apartment renters.  If you haven't heard, he's a Finn, and she grew up in Kansas with Elder Staggs, who was in the office with us as an Assistant for 6 months.

We thought that the cake with its pine cones, greenery and blueberries was very Finnish, and beautiful.

We were thrilled with an invitation to visit with Davin and his kids.  Everyone wore masks, and we enjoyed it tremendously.  I showed him a picture of an eye shaped arch with the moon looking though it, making it look like an eye ball. He recognized the arch, and when they all went to Moab the next day they sent pictures of the arch.   That was so cool.

He also showed me this cool surrealistic mineral.  I guess when this mineral is melted and then allowed to cool it forms into these squarish crystals.  I think its just fascinating.  I love it when they share cool rock hounding and mineral kinds of stuff.

Darby told us that she was meeting our cousin Jason Larsen for lunch, before he moves to California to work with his brother Erik in his somewhat new solar panel business.  Its called Lar Sun.  I thought that was clever.  You may recall that Erik had a cup cake business back when they were the thing and even appeared on one of the cupcake shows a couple of times, and moved to India to help a man there to set up a cupcake business for a year at one time.  What an adventure.

Anyway, Jason has been working with Darby at Micron, though he was in management.  He's excited to go and work with Erik.  We wish him the best.

We went to Christian's funeral on Friday, at a mortuary in Payson.  There were about 20 people in all, spread out over a large room.  I thought it was a really nice funeral.  His two children, 16 and 21 had planned it and his sister, two friends and his Dad spoke.  It really was a celebration of an out of the ordinary life.  He rented our basement apartment at one time, I don't know if any of you remembered that.  Well, I am sure he is at peace now.

We had to pick up a few groceries, after getting a new windshield in the van, so I picked up this giant cookie for one of my former young women, who I particularly enjoy who had just turned 18.

Saturday morning we met up in Provo at Guru's with Britt and Becca.  Britt was in town with Charlie for a Dance conference.  It was interesting to hear how careful  the conference is being handled.  Parents are not allowed to see their children in the workshops, which Charlie was in, but get to see videos of them.  For the performances of the older girls, I think one parent could watch.  Charlie is shown here with a good friends and dance mate.

Charlie's friend's mother, and her older sister, who also dances, is included in this photo. on the left by Charlie. 

Charlie will be doing a solo performance in March in Idaho that we had hoped to go and attend.  Its unlikely that we will be able to, because of restrictions, so Charlie, who has been working on the program, ran through the whole of it, with the exception of some flips and cartwheels.  The tables are so widely spaced, that there was plenty of room for our own private preview.

Dad had put together our new English Cottage, style chairs (recliners) the day before, then I got to Scotch guard them ... two cans worth.  The fabric is sturdy, we are just concerned about light color.  The chairs were super cheap, like $250 each, the ones we bought for our room last time, that are now in the library, were $350 ... I guess it pays to be out of step with the current fashion, because they also turned out to be massage chairs.  LOL. Of course Scotch's logo is their own personal plaid.

Here are some pictures of the above cabinet new looks.  You can see that besides bringing down the red and whites from our bedroom, I also brought down my vintage plaid picnic tins from my craft room where they used to hold craft supplies.  I think this might be my favorite incarnation of our kitchen here.

After noticing plaids all week, I laughed when I walked out of the garage and noticed the plaid welcome mat for the apartment.  I have no idea where it come from,  but it seemed perfect for this week.

Here are the other two views of our newly redified and plaidfied kitchen.

We were meeting Becca and Britt for dinner that night, so we left a little early to check out Trader Joe's.  We are trying to find some of the vegan/vegetarian stuff we got used to in Finland.  Also we've  missed their triple ginger snaps.  But the Kews had shared some thin little triple gingersnaps Trader Joe's has started making.  They are just as good and have 11 calories each.  I can get behind that. As you see we had to wait in line to get into the store.  Its been interesting.

When we met at the restaurant, they had this balloon sculpture.  Brittany said they are a thing now.  How funny, a bit of American culture that we were not aware of.  It felt a little funny, being out of touch with my own culture.

This place was a temporary pop up for another restaurant, called the Communal, because it was Valentine's eve.  Unfortunately the menu of the pop up was set, and it was definitely not vegan.  They were nice when we explained and said that the restaurant next door had lots of vegan options.

And that's how we all ended up at the Black Sheep Cafe eating a version of Navajo Tacos.  Yum

I loved Charlies cute piggy buns.

I borrowed this cute official picture of Charlie at the completion of her work shop from Britt's Insta.

Today Dad and I got to go to church.  That was nice.  We sat every other row, and family groups were separated by huge spaces.  I love that we got to sing.  In Finland we did not, so even singing in masks was delightful to me

Dad said the vegan sushi was beautiful (Trader Joe's vegan cream cheese) and I needed to take a picture.

Here is Dad in his new robe.  With the lighter chairs, even with the Scotch guard, I knew he'd need to put on a robe before sitting in his chair after his runs, while he gets up the strength to shower.  The funny thing is that, besides being Pendleton wool, and needing to be dried clean ... (I'm counting on washing it in cold water) ...

Its also plaid.

and look what I found in the final suitcase ... yep.  I brought home about 5 wool plaid blankets.  I ran across this one after the rest were packed.  So I had forgotten it.

Then last of all we had a little Zoom meeting with the two senior couples who are heading out to Finland this month and next month.  The crazy thing is that both couples were supposed to have served with us.  It would have been so great.  This is the Mottishaws, Dad served with him on his mission, and I went to high school with him.  His wife is the sister of a woman who lived in the Geneva Heights Seventh ward. (Cindy Walton) We had been so excited to get to serve with them.  Alas.

And the de St. Aubins, who were originally supposed to come in July. 

Well, its been a great week.  I am loving getting some projects done, and look forward to more.  I just wish I had had this much energy when my children were young. Hope you all have a great week.