Our First Full Week with Grandpa

Monday started early for me, as soon as it was light. I had promised my blog followers a 'garden house reveal' for Tuesday, but since I worked I had to hurry and decorate and photograph it before work.  Emily came up and hung out with Cheryl and Dad all day, along with Baby Girl of course. 

Tuesday was really my only 'day off' and it was consumed with making this baby dress for Beckie.  Emily had me use her high school graduation dress, some buttons from her M-I-L's wedding dress, and some purchased lace and netting.  I added a bow at the neck made from a ribbon from Emily's blessing dress ... definitely an memorable heirloom.

 

After making the dress I ran into my Doctor's to get some blood work done so I could get my cholesterol med prescription renewed, and also so I could get some paperwork signed for Grandpa's application to the day care place in Salt Lake.

 

Scott attended the temple after work, and had his dinner in the cafeteria there.

On Wednesday and Thursday I got four items of furniture painted for flea.o.logy that weekend.  I also gathered some items to take to sell.

 

Briahnna watched Grandpa on Thursday as Emily had company in town to entertain, and was unable to help again.   Dad ended up getting off early that day and picked up Grandpa, then spent the afternoon with Grandpa and Cheryl at home.

 

I stayed after work to pack up more goodies for F, getting home about 7:30,  Dad had just left to go to the first BYU game of the season, meeting his sons there.  While he was gone, I did a bit of finishing up and gathering items for flea.o.logy, and watched Mitt Romney's talk at the Republican Convention.

Friday, Dad took the day off to help me set up for flea.o.logy.  Isn't he a saint?  He started by getting the boat moved, then helped with little set up issues all day.  I painted out the booth outlines for the dealers, and greeted the early dealers as they came to set up.  I got everything that I had brought out to the garden house on Monday, hauled back out, then hauled in, with Dad's help, all the stuff I planned to sell.

 

Next Dad and I were off to Salt Lake for a family gathering there, including some friends, and the company that Emily had in town.  It was a lovely, memorable evening, the culmination of which is shown below at the Iggy's where Darby works on Saturday evenings.

 

 

When I got home, I pretty much stayed up all night setting up my booth, and doing my share of the 'night watch' over the sale.  It had rained some right before Dad and I left for Salt Lake, but we were still hoping for good weather for the sale.

Here is my friend Cathie, working on last minute blog posts and adds for the sale, at 3:00 AM, just made me giggle.  She headed to bed about 4:30, and within 5 minutes there was  huge crash from lightening and thunder hitting at the same time.  It even woke up Beckie in the basement and so Emily and Sam came out to see what had happened.  It started to pour, and I was glad my goods were in the garden house, as I don't usually set up a pop up on the lawn.  Most of the dealers, because of the earlier storm, had gathered their goods and hung them with tarps, so most things were in good shape after the solid half hour of pouring rain.

Then morning came, and everyone rushed to get ready to open at 8:00 AM. Here is Nell, with the booth she shared with Aunt Joyce, Emily and Dad have come by to visit, and keep dry as another rain storm hits around 9:30 AM.

Here I am with Pauline, she is a regular blog follower, who saw my post of the white magazine table, and who rushed down to flea.o.logy to buy it.  She said she reads my blog everyday and had been following the building of the garden house with much excitement and wonder.  That was so fun to hear about!!

Here is Emily with her M-I-L, Sheila, who paid me the compliment of comparing the rush she felt at flea.o.logy to the rush she feels when she goes to First Monday Trade Days in Canton Texas, the oldest continuous Flea Market in the United States ... (1850's)  Wow.

And here I am with Eva, after Trevor came, bringing the kids, to help Nell pack up after the show.

The garden house got a lot of attention, and there were many customers who took pictures of it.  This lady is actually going to build one, as she has a handy husband and took a ton of pics to help with the project.    I also thought you might enjoy seeing how mud tracked the floor was by the end of the day.  My sales were great, even though I had fewer things for sale, I have dumped the idea of using flea.o.logy to clearance stuff, so it was great to make as much money as I usually do with about half the stuff to haul in, set up, and later take down and pack up.  I also think the garden house made people want to buy, because its so cute ... kind of weird, but cool.

 

 

 

Sam also taught in Sunday School, and did his usual stellar job.  Then I got to teach my Sunbeam class for the first time.  The little girl who is the big problem in that class was there, and in full blown mode, but all went well, and I think I am going to love teaching them.  I so appreciate the Primary President arranging things so I can teach and still go to Sunday School and Relief Society some.

 

Emily hosted dinner after Church, baking frozen lasagnas and garlic bread.  We had a great time visiting.

 

Here I am with my friend Pat who also came by.  It was an amazing week getting into a routine with caring for grandpa and Aunt Cheryl, while still managing to fit in most of what we usually do.  I will say that Cheryl is a great help with Grandpa, and I am not sure we could pull it off without her.

A Week That Has Changed Us For Good

 Crazy week, and we will never be the same as we were.  To start, just for fun, I thought I would share a smile.  I was working on a project outside Monday when Emily brought the baby out and we were chatting.  Who should come through the drive through at the bank?  These four video game characters, Princess Peach, Mario, et al riding bikes.  I asked what was up, and they said it was the day before school started and they wanted to make memories.  Well, they made a memory for me!!  Also On Monday I helped Dad install the chandelier in the garden house, Emily even came out and helped hold the very heavy thing while Dad got it hooked up.

 

Tuesday was errand day for me.  I did some banking, bought some books, (on line and at the book store) grocery shopped and just for fun, hit the dollar store.  Good times, Dad worked then did his shift at the temple.

 

Wednesday was a work day, then visiting teaching in the evening. 

 

Thursday is the day that changed our lives.  I knew Dad was bringing Grandpa home to live with us, but while at work I got a call from Dad saying that when he took Cheryl to help get her set up at her condo, Uncle Kelly had rented it to someone .... oops.  It was a good thing Cheryl was here that night, because  I had book club here, and Dad had audits for a couple of wards in the stake. (The joys of having a degree in accounting, I guess).  Anyway, while I was listening to the author of Mark of Royalty, with my book club members, Cheryl, was helping keep our wandering grandpa contained.

Above are some of the ladies, with their copies of Mark of Royalty, I am shown here with Jennifer Clark, the main author.  It was her first book, and is based on a scene from a dream ...  She loves story telling and has been doing it her whole life, her sister, who co-authored the book, encouraged her to write down her stories.  We are so glad she did!!

Dad took the day off on Friday to help get Grandpa and Cheryl settled in.  Emily came up with baby girl to help keep grandpa entertained.

 . 

Then on Saturday, I got up early to paint the electrical conduit in the garden house before Dad, Grandpa and I headed off for a birthday lunch for Ben, Davin and Becca at Tucanos. (Of course Dad was off doing his long run of the week first thing)  Grandpa seemed to enjoy all that was going on around him at the birthday party lunch. I just wish Cheryl was up to getting out, but she prefers to stay 'home' at the moment. When we got home,  Dad and I hauled the mattress out to the garden house, and then he installed the rail. I then finished the floor with varathan. Then Dad screwed in a cup hook to hold the mosquito netting. I plan my big 'reveal' on my blog for this coming Tuesday morning. Its been so long in coming and Dad has worked so very hard, he's amazing.

 Then Saturday night Briahnna and Dave brought Elias over for us to watch him while they went to a movie.  I had to run to the grocery store, and when I got home Elias was playing the piano.  I made dinner, and we all sat down together and ate.  I needed some flowers for the garden house, so I ran to Walmart, while Dad watched Elias and Grandpa.  Unfortunately Grandpa was able to open our tricky front door, and I got a panicked phone call from Dad saying that Grandpa had disappeared, and to come home NOW!!  (I had drifted off into shopping for grandkids birthday gifts since we have a few coming up.)  When I got home, Sam, Emily and I all cruised the neighborhood in separtate vehicles to no avail.  Emily called the police, and yes, they had him and brought him home.  He is now in their data base, so in the future they will know where to bring him.  The policeman was very, very nice and said Grandpa isn't the only elderly Payson resident known to wander.  AArrrggggg....

Today we had church as usual, and Dad got to attend our sacrament meeting, which was helpful, as I brought Grandpa on my own (after Dad showered and dressed him, that is) .  Grandpa did do some talking during the meetings, and it was hard to remind him to be quiet as he can't hear you.  In the end it worked out.  Then I ran home to make dinner. After Dinner Dad and I went out to take some pics of the directional sign I have made for the garden, and Emily and Sam and Baby girl came out to the garden house.  As you see Sam and Beckie climbed into the sleeping loft,  Beckie wasn't sure what she thought about that. 

 

Now Dad and Grandpa have gone off to the concert in the park, Cheryl is watching some kind of sports thing downstairs and I am, well, blogging about our week. 

 

 When Dad and grandpa were up at the park they met up with Davin and Bri and the kids, as well as Emily and Beckie.  Emily called me from the park to tell me all the fun I was missing.  But luckily for me Davin and Bri and the kids stopped by on their way home and visited for a while.  They even posed for pics in the garden house. 

 

 

 Hope your week was wonderful!!  Love you all!

 

 

The Good, The Bad and the Ugly!

I had big plans for Monday ... but I ended up ironing all day.  Weird, I thought it would take an hour or two not five.  I  have put off ironing pillowcases, table clothes, hankies, aprons and some vintage clothing to sell at the shop.  But as Emily said, "Doesn't it feel good to finally have it done?" and I do have to say yes.  Scott worked in the Richfield store where he did a cookie and cracker reset.  As he was getting off the freeway, almost home, he felt his transmission go out.  Thus we drove my van out to Tooele that night to see Mathew Mason in Fiddler on the roof.  We sat behind Amy and had fun chatting.  I love the music and it was super fun to see Matt do the bottle dance with three other guys, and to be proud of him for being the only one of the four with his bottle still on his hat at the end of the dance.

So on Tuesday Dad took my car to work, while I dealt with getting cars to repair places.  The ugly old boat towing van had a leak in the water system, so I took it to Davin's Friend, Jared's brother'd place to be repaired, then had AAA come and got Dad's car and towed it to the transmission place in Provo.  Luckily Dad had bought a warrentee last time, and it was still covered, so pretty much new transmission for free!!

 Later that day Emily and Sam took off for a session at the temple, don't they look cute? (See below).  Of course Dad works at the temple Tuesday nights, and got to see them for a minute, which is always fun   Oh, and that meant I got to watch Beckie for part of the day ... here she is holding my fabric with which I made the down cushion cover (shown below,) with hand stitched welting around the top and bottom . (Read that as it took all day to do the hand stitching), and Beckie was too busy to let me do it, mostly, so we ended up watching us some of the first season of Downton Abby ... (remember Dad and I watched the whole second season with Britt when we were up there?)

Here are Sam and Emily headed to do a session at the Provo Temple.

Wednesday and Thursday were work days for me,  Emily was good enough to run me in both days since the ugly van was not done.  Dad picked me up afterwards, having dinner early on Thursday with his dad so that he could get me around6:00.

On Friday I was up early to do estate sales in Salt Lake with Joyce, a bit belatedly, for her birthday.  After doing several sales, we headed up to Hoytsville for another estate sale,  it is where Debbie Donaldson, with whom we grew up, lives now.  It was her grandmother's house there, shown right, that got me hooked on antiques in the first place, back in 1962 or 3 when I went with Debbie to visit her grandmother.  This house is fully furnished in period furniture and has rooms of dolls, doll houses, and miniature rooms that are so charming, a real fairy land for this little girl. 

It was so fun to run into Debbie and her Mom Martha Ann at the sale.  I haven't seen Martha Ann since I was married, so that was a real treat!!  She is an absolutely amazing lady and homemaker extraordinaire ... I should have been a better homemaker just because I knew her and saw her in action!!

After the sale we went to a little occasional 'shabby' store called the Vintage Market there.  Debbie's younger sister Jayne is involved in it and I met her sister-in-law. 

Then the other partner and I were collaborating as to how we could pass out fliers for their store at our next flea.o.logy sale, and she noted my name was Perkins and said, "Oh that's my maiden name" ... I let her bla, bla, bla, because we are NEVER related to other Perkins, I asked her conversationally where her 'Perkins' hailed from and she said "Gunnison", which stopped me in my tracks.  Her grandfather is Wendall, Grandpa Milt's brother.  She is Dad's second cousin, how cool is that?

That night Dad and I drove to Highland and had dinner at Heuer's, with Moes along as well, before watching a cool movie about a squadron of Black fighter pilots during WWII.  As always it was great to get back together and spend some comfortable laid  back time with friends who feel more like family.  We have a cruise scheduled with them in the spring in the Caribbean, which we are all looking forward to ... in fact they are each taking their soon to be graduates, AKA their Hawaiian babies, the ones they brought home invetrio from our three couple trip to Hawaii 17 years ago. LOL

On Saturday, after his long run, Dad went over and helped Davin install a light fixture, which is kind of funny, because at the time I was home digging a trench to the garden house so he could run electrical out there to put in a light fixture for me as well.  Then while we were doing that a lady dropped by who had been at the last flea.o.logy and who wondered if I still had a certain light fixture ... she bought it ... so light fixture was definitely the hot word for the day.

Then too its always fun to have Emily and Beckie around when we are out there working, I think I will always remember the time they spent living in the apartment as kind of magical.

While dad was running conduit, with a bit of help from me, we were dodging each other so I could put up the name on the cottage that I had chosen.  Of course, Chawton Cottage is the home where Jane Austen wrote most of her books.  She lived there from 1809 until her death in 1817 at the age of 41.  I put her silhouette on it too, as I think more people recognize that than will recognize the significance of Chawton.

Later Emily got the idea of using one of our boat  pull toys as a mini baby swimming pool.  I wish you could have seen the priceless look on Beckie's face when she sat down in the coolish water, momentarily ... then repeated it a couple more times.  So fun and so, so cute.

That night Dad and I went along with Kews to Paige Anderson's reception in Elk Ridge .... it was pool side, at the home of a Doctor with whom Brent Anderson works.  The pool house was about the size of our Salt Lake house, with the whole upstairs being a huge great room and kitchen and the basement being on street level and being a huge garage.  The house was on the hill above it ... and I wanted to think it was decadent to have a house and pool house that size, but then when I think what the pioneers would think about how we live, I am inclined to tell my brain to just shut up!!  Afterwards it was dinner with the Kews eating Mexican in Provo.

Then on Sunday, after Dad had gone off to his other ward's meetings, I got a call from the Exec Sec asking me to see the bishop before church ... I was devastated when I was called to teach the Sunbeams, in fact I burst into tears ... that's the problem with being the kind of person who wears their emotions on their sleeve, so embarrassing.  I am good friends with the Primary President, and I couldn't believe she had submitted my name, when she knows how I love Relief Society and Sunday School ... Turns out she asked for me as a half time teacher, so I CAN still go to Sam's amazing Sunday School lessons, as he teaches every other week, AND, she told the bishop that too, he just forgot to mention it ... and now I feel like a moron.  The good thing is that I love teaching Primary, I love the kids, the staff, everything, except missing Sunday School and Relief Society. So I am good now.

That night we drove to Highland to Becca's 'Gender Reveal' dinner/party.  She had filled a pinata with candy in a color that would tell us who we are expecting ... and after Eva whacked it so hard it came off its string, it was not long until we all knew the baby is going to be a girl.  It will be so fun, because Emily and Becca will have girls in the same year of school .... I suspect they will be as close as Randy Moe and Jeff Heuer are, and for the same reason.

So that wraps up our week of the good (Becca'a having a baby girl), the bad (Dad's car breaking down) and the ugly (Me driving the old boat pulling van!)

Dad Finishes His First Half Marathon!!

Dad Finishes His First Half Marathon!!

This past week was a full one. Scott did cookie and cracker resets at four different stores, which kept him out of the office for the most part. Monday found me having luncheon with Barb at the the Summer in the Park with Jane. The lunch was prepared by the UVU culinary arts students and was amazing. Here are Barb and I with Melissa Larsen, author of Persuasions, a play being performed in SLC next month. They did a couple of bits from the play for us at the luncheon as well.

Emily brought Beckie up to visit that afternoon, and then Emily and I and her friend Emily all had a glitter toes appointments that afternoon here at the house with the same lady who did them for our Mother's Spa Night.

Dad and I had our Family Home Evening group that night with the Kews. Here are Debbie Dockstader, Steve Kew, Mike and Dianne Forster. There were 6 others in attendance as well. We had a couple who is serving a mission at the MTC. arranging for individuals to be taught as the missionaries practice. It was pretty fun and amazing to hear about their mission.

On Tuesday morning I went to the Payson pool with Linda Gilson, a lady from the ward, and did water aerobics. It was fun, but I was disappointed to hear that they are suspending the morning swim next week. I so wish we had a year round pool.

Then I got busy painting the cubbies above, that I had gotten the previous weekend at an estate sale. I also managed to paint a night stand to take into the antique mall the next day.

Emily and I went to lunch at Dalton's because we had a great coupon. That was fun, we walked over and the baby made a mess of our booth. Ah, making memories.

That night Dad was back to the temple for the first time in a month, as it had been closed. He said all went smoothly and he was glad to be back.

I worked Wednesday and Thursday, packing before going to work Thursday, as I would be leaving for the Shakespeare Festival with my book club right after work. I got to meet up with Ashley's kids, who were being watched by Emily as we headed out the door. Emily had made arrangements for them for the weekend, as Ashley and Andy had a disk golf tournament. I can't believe all the stuff that happened that weekend, that we obviously missed ... hopefully we got in the most important.

Here I am at the Shakespeare festival. We all had a great time, I saw three of the five plays we had planned, missing the first, so as not to miss a day of work, then missing the last so that I could get home for 2 weddings and a homecoming.

Dad went to the High Priest Social on his own on Friday night. He had a great time, and got to hear the Stake President give a very inspirational talk, that was mentioned a couple of times on Sunday. Glad I knew someone who was there so I could get the scoop .

Saturday morning Dad was off for the Provo River Trail half marathon. He managed to meet his goal, but came home tired and starving. After eating he headed to the Orem rental house where he spent three hours and three trips to the store to fix the sprinklers there. He saw Cindy Burr next door, as her daughter has bought Doug Peterson's house.

I got home from Cedar City at 7:00 and we headed to Orem for the wedding of one of the Snell twins. It was great to visit with old ward members, and to find out that Pete Dotson is the 11 year old scout leader there. I hope Ian will decide to do scouts, Pete is a blast!! Next it was off to Chelsea McGowan's wedding reception in Highland. To the left are her two sisters, Elise and Alexa. It was great to see Jenn and Craig, who just came out for two days to attend the wedding and homecoming, this was the main reason I decided to drop the last play, I didn't want to miss them while they were here.

Below is the wedding cake Chelsea made for herself. She also took three days and did an 16 foot table of cookies, cupcakes, cake bites etc. Best looking buffet I have seen!

Afterwards Dad and I met up with Becca and Brady and Titan at Maui Chill. It was fun to visit, and to play with Titan. Maui Chill seems to be as busy as ever!! Looks like a winner.

Sunday morning Dad and I were off to Andrew McGowen's homecoming talk in Highland at 9:00. He did a great job, and of course it was sort of heartbreaking, since his parents left the church while he was on his mission. Someone asked if it was awkward to see them, knowing that. I said, not really, we are such old and dear friends that it can't be awkward. Of course we pray for them mightily, but in all honestly, they are too good of people to stay away for long. Jenn is really one of my heroes!! But then again the Book of Mormon does say that if it were possible, in the last days, even the VERY ELECT may be deceived.

We got home and Dad rushed off to his other ward meetings. I met up with him for Sunday school, after our sacrament meeting, in which Brent and Jane York spoke. Brent mentioned they had gone through he temple last May, who knew? That is so cool!