The Week I Wrestled a Pig in the Chapel!

Monday was errand day, and I snapped this photo while at the library.   I also hit several stores, including the grocery store and picked up my prescription.  

On Tuesday I had arranged to take Ashley to lunch, since I never see her. She was watching Becca's kids while Becca went to a meeting. So when Becca's   meeting was cancelled she joined us. 

Dad had spent their morning at the Fresh Markey sponsored special kids fishing day at Salem Pond! 

Then he joined us for cafe rio in Orem!! 

On my way home I picked up ground covers to redo the fairy garden as well as tomato plants for the garden, and flowers for my flower boxes   Olsons had these two cute  fairy gardens in the store!! 

I worked Wednesday and Aunt Joyce came in with some Cafe Rio and some presents. We had a nice visit. 

Dad got to do another shift ushering at the Payson Temple Open House in the marriage waiting room. 

I worked again Thursday, and towards the end of the day Dave and Bri and the kids came by and brought me chocolates and flowers!! 

When it was time to go, Addie said "No, I want to stay here forever!"  Yeah! Another Antiquer in the family. 

Dad had been in St George that day working and knew our niece Katie was playing the last of the state tournament. He decided to go to the course, since he was in town, and got to see her tie with the top player of the other team for the championship!  They broke the tie with one sudden death hole, Katie did it in  two shots , the other girl took three. Katie's team won their 6th 3a championship in a row and she won her third best girl golfer!  Dad felt so lucky to be their to see it!! 

I had debated about going to this church history lecture that night, I didn't know either the artist who hosted or the professor from BYUI that was speaking, but since I've been deep in church history lately it appealed to me. I still felt weird about going, but when she signed on to follow me on Instagram a few days later that decided me.   Since Dad had worked in St George that day he didn't get home until 10 to 7.  Fortunately it was in Woodland Hills, so we were just a few minutes late. 

I found the lecture so interesting, and it was fun to meet someone with Ivy League  degrees!! 

Seeing J Kirk Richards studio was awesome too !! 

On Friday I did some reading and some yard work. When I pulled the dead fitzers out of my planters, they beat me up bad!! 

Never the less I do like the new plantings. 

That night we met the Moes and Heuers for dinner at Sizzler before going to the Hale Center Theater production of Big Fish!

On Saturday morning Dad went off on his run and I went to the church house to clean, as it was the Relief Society's turn.  I got to use this vacuum called, the Pig, to vacuum between the pews. The wand attachment had come apart, and I had to hold it together while I dragged the pig around, vacuuming. Quite a trick!  So who knew one day I'd wrestle a pig in the chapel? 

Then it was home for a quickie bath and change before heading off to Bettilou's funeral. When we got there we saw Becca and Titan who had come for the viewing. 

Barb's niece Adrienne is expecting her second, her oldest,  Junebug is 6!  Also thought Krista looked adorable again! 

Here are Barb (pink) and her siblings. She and Donelle (green) did a really lovely life sketch during the funeral, with the fun celebrating stories we Mormons are famous for telling. Bettilou was 92 and is such a darling lady!! Dad and I have known her well for 24 years!! I even went with Barb and her kids to Bettilou's family farm when they were settling the  estate in South Dakota!!  I saw fire flies for my first and only time there. 

It really was the nicest funeral  for the celebrating of a life I've ever attended ... For the first time I actually wondered what my own funeral will be like! 

After the cemetary we picked up my fairy assistant in PG!! 

Because it was time to redo this  fairy garden. 

       B Sadly it rained on us like crazy!! 

But Eva's a good sport and told me to just put up my hood!! 

The old well will be getting a fairy garden of its own soon. 

Then it was off to Chuckorama for my birthday dinner with the kids 

               Loved this shot of Lu! 

Becca took pictures for me, so I didn't get one of her. 

           But I got her crazy family! 

          All my cute kids and grands!! 

Today I got to give my Relief Society lesson on flooding the earth with the Book of Mormon. It was a lovely lesson from Presidemt Benson's book!! 

After church we rushed to Salt Lake for

 Kristin's  son Jeff's homecoming talk. He served in Hong Kong. We also got to meet this cute Chinese girl that Jill has taken under her wing.  One day Jill was out driving and her daughter noticed this girl on the road side with her bike, crying. She is here from China attending college here without a program, and was feeling lonely and over whelmed. Jill and her family have befriended her since.  The girl speaks Cantonese and Jeff speaks Manderine , too bad.  Tonight Brittney, our own Manderine speaker, said that most of the Chinese missionaries In Hong Kong speak Cantonese, but they have the M speaking missionaries too because people (like Brittney's companions on her mission in Chinese speaking Canada,) would learn about the church from friends at home in mainland China and would want to join, so they would fly into Hong Kong and have all the discussions in one day and then they'd be baptized and fly home the same day!!  Who knew? 

 Here I  with my brother Clark and his sweet wife Jo. 

And the returned missionary himself, Elder Jeff Martinez. Who, by the way was companions to Caleb Crump before coming home! 

Dad and I stopped and visited with a sleepy grandpa Carlo on our way to dinner at Davin and Bri's. 

What a beautiful table!! 

Dinner was delicious and a good time was had by all.  Thanks for an amazing dinner Bri. 

We got home, just at dusk, we noticed the lights in the fairy garden house and 'street light' were glowing!! How fun!! 

Two Weddings, Two Shows and a Horse

What an amazing week we had.   So full of the wonderful people who make our lives so worth while.  On Monday I walked with LaVern for the first time in a while, then I was off to my monthly we can meeting at Sandy's house. 

We were sewing diapers for newborn kits. 

That evening we hosted our Family Home Evening group and Dad gave the lesson. 

Loved this pic Emily posted of William on a fire truck!! 

On Tuesday Dad and I were up early to drive to Logan to witness Daniel Heuer's wedding at the Logan temple. 

      Thought I'd share my favorite pics. 

I've loved this pose ever since Becca's photographer did it, then there's the one of Davin!! Love those!! 

Lily was so cute running around with her pink camera!  Tami made her dress.  How precious is that!! 

Dad and I stopped at the Brigham City temple after the wedding breakfast and a bit of junking in Logan. 

The afternoon was spent driving south and stopping at various DIs before arriving at Moes and heading to the reception in Higland with them. Isn't the cake beautiful!! 

Got to visit with Sandy Vernon and  Robin's mom, Pat! 

It was fun to visit with Brigette, and the Flat Jake! 

Then Briahnna came with the kids and her Mom. 

We had a great day with our dear, dear friends!  

On Wednesdsy we were back to our normal lives. At work that day Jenna, the leader of the Pyrex pirates group I follow on FB came in, so I had to have a selfie with her. 

On Thursday, another work day, I set out the collection of mothers mottos I'd bought at the Reclaimologist sale the previous week.  

On Friday Darby brought a friend by. She was supposed to have closed on the condo, but the new appraisal  was too late for the paper work to be done on time. She'd taken the day off and was using her unexpected day off running errands. 

I talked her into going to the Beehive  Bazaar with me at the old Startup Candy building in Provo. 

Loved this artist and got some small prints. 

Always find something in Jenn Reed's booth that I need. 

... And ran into Jenn too ... Weirdly she and Darby had never met. 

Gotta love the little missionaries. 

And who wouldn't want troll dolls with succulents for hair. The gal said they were flying off the shelf, she was there restocking. 

After some lunch at Cafe Rio to keep our strength up, we drove to Salem so I could meet Darby's horse, Dallas. 

She's had him 11 months.  Clearly it took me too long.  We had so much fun!  Thanks Darby. 

That evening Dad and I went to a wedding reception between the Hardman's daughter (they lived next to us in Payson cottage) and the Johansen's youngest son (Julie and I were walking partners for a several years before we moved back to Salt Lake).   Small world.  I thought the skull to sign was pretty unusual!! 

After the reception we drove a couple of miles to Davin and Bri's to watch the kids while they went out. 

When they got home they watched the rest of the Ellen Degenerous dvd we'd been watching. 

Darby joined in too.  Lots and lots of laughs. 

On Saturday, after Dad's 8 mile run, we headed to the church for a ward breakfast.   Above is a collage of ward members playing a game that includes sliding a cooking down your face and into your mouth!! 

It's so fun to be in a large ward again. 

Afterwards we went over to the old home a young couple in the ward is rehabilitating. The husband is the brother of Kenneth Abott's wife, I met them at a yard sale Ken was having a couple of weeks ago. They are so cute and are working so hard!!  Their house has a huge back yard and a stream!  I love it!

After that Dad and I drove to Ogden for the Acorn Antique show.     

I loved this amazing 2 foot tall bronze of Joseph Smith from the 1970s, I did not however love the 3,000 buck price tag. Since I've been reading his journals and his nitty gritty biography, Rough Stone Rolling, I have so come to love and appreciate how amazing he was.  If the statue was 1000 I might have worked out a payment plan, as I know the dealer well, alas it's not to be!! 

But we did run into Aunt Wendy's brother Greg Skordis and his wife, how fun is that!? 

After the show we stopped in Salt Lake to be the surprise guests at my friend Laura Gray's 68 th birthday party!!  She moved back to Salt Lake last November, and this is the first time I've seen her. It was such a nice reunion!! 

Here she is with her kids and 12 of her 13 grands! 

 

After the party at Gray's, we headed south, stopping in Highland to play games with Heuers and Moes at the Heuers, but though the Moes stopped by, they got news that her mom, who'd been fading, was doing worse, so they went home.   The Masons, who'd come over from Tooele to go out to dinner with Moes, stayed and played for a while. After gaming Dad and I went over to Moes to say our good byes to Bettilou.  We've known her for 24 years. What a great lady!  We've learned to love her. She's lived with Barb and Randy for 13 years!! She actually passed away this morning at  6:00 AM on Mothers day!!  Her sweet and gentle spirit will be missed by us all   

Today Dad and I spoke in our home ward. I heard lots of positive comments on our mothers Day talks.  Mine was pretty untraditional, talking about how some women hate mothers day, because they feel it creates unreasonable expectations. But I gave examples of mothers who did a great job in less than ideal circumstances. I also talked about my own amazing mother, and included her faults so everyone would know that having faults does not stop one from being a great mom!!  I ended with a tribute to Bettilou and her wonderful family. It was the only time I teared up. 

After church Brittney and Spencer came up to chat for a few minutes, then dad and I both fell asleep in the parlor, me for 3 hours, must have been tired! 

Then it was off to Dave's house for family dinner. 

Elias was so proud of this cookie art his Primary  Teacher helped him make for his Mom!!  He even told me to sniff them.  And yep this non sugar eating sugar cookie lover did just that.  Yum!'

Darby tries her hand with adorable little Penny at her first family dinner!!

Adilyn gave Penny some loves too!! 

Davin showed us the amazing skills he's practicing for the family talent show at the first annual Perkins Family Reunion at Trevor's in July!! 

Briahnna played while Dad and Darby and assorted brothers sang songs from Le Mis, it was pretty awesome to listen to them too 

Then the pied piper took all the kids out front to shoot bottle rockets. 

They had a blast. 

Then I got to hold McKenna, who for reasons unknown,  was loving on her Aunt Brittney's shoe. It was pretty cute.  Just at sayin!! 

It was a busy week crowned by a lovely Mother's Day. My dear children called, sent texts and gave me thoughtful gifts!!  I have such wonderful children, and I am so greatful to have them in my life.  The grandchildren are just the frosting on the cake. Thanks all!!