Blanketed with Blessings

Good morning Monday.  We met Ashley and her favorite blanket at the Red Cross Donation Center in Orem with the object of donating platelets with her.

We did have a few hurdles between us and donating, Dad cleared his hurdles, but I tripped and fell twice, so to speak.  Dad's issue was that his heart beats per minute were too slow, at 42, so they had him run in place in the hall until he got it up enough to donate.  Here he is having the hose hooked up to the blood river that is the flow from his veins.

Mine is another story. First of all, I was denied the opportunity to do platelets, because of having antibodies to the Little c antigen, that I developed during Becca's birth and that then caused problems during my pregnancy with Spencer.  I guess if someone has Little c, and receives platelets with Little c antibodies, it can cause a reaction, that often ends in death. 

So on to hurdle number two.  The phlebotomist chose three possible veins, and went with one I've not had anyone try before.  She found it too rolly, and after several pricks, and maneuvers, wiggling the needle around, ouch, she called over another gal who was much more gentle, but had no more luck.  She said I should come back and try another time, that perhaps one of those other veins would yeild.  She also pointed out that the 1/10 of a pint they were able to get had two great big clots.  Hmmmm.   

So I went to Trader Joes and the Antique Mall, while these two lived the platelet party dream. Here they all all snuggled in for movies and chats and snacks.

I got daffodils at Trader Joes, though.

I also stopped at Hobby Lobby and got the swirly (red one) stencil to go with some stamps, as I was considering doing a design on our bedroom wall, instead of wallpaper, because I had not been able to find the paper I had put away before our mission. Here you see I was practicing on some poster board.

On Tuesday we went to get our second shots.  There are a lot of National Guard people volunteering there.  These two are showing off their unit patches.  I find this individuality in the army to be so interesting.  I also thought it was interesting that they just have a big ol swath of velcro on their sleeves so they can pull patches on and off easily. 

Here we are waiting our fifteen minutes after our shots ... do you think the guy behind us might be Bernie?  I mean its indoors, he wouldn't need his mittens.

On Wednesday Dad headed to Darby's while I stayed home to get ready for a St. Patty's party.  I had reacted badly to the vaccine, and hadn't slept well, but managed to pull off the blankets and get at it anyway.  He spent the day putting up blankets of insulation to keep up with code, and keep her soon to be apartment, nice and snug,  Fortunately for Dad, Jeff is working on finishing his own basement, so he is up to code, which has made it easy for Dad to do it all right.   Thanks Jeff.

It was a lovely afternoon, and our girl Darby got to give Dallas a little exercise.

I had found the green banner at the Dollar Store, and spent some of the day finding, printing off, and cutting out St Patty's picture for the banner.

I worked on putting the table together, including folding napkins into bowtie shapes.

I didn't have a green tablecloth for the event, and though I considered using my Penny Quilt Blanket instead, I ended up using a green check sheet.

Just as my guests arrived I had rainbows again.  This picture was from last Sunday, because I didn't get a picture of the ones on Wednesday, but it was pretty magical.

I spent a lot of the day cooking.  Here you can see the opening course.  Its hard to tell but the clover rolls have green food coloring.  The soup is cream of broccoli with potato. 

Course two was a green salad, course three was a green sherbet to cleanse the palate, with a shamrock cookie, course four was Calcannon, an Irish dish that is basically mashed potatoes with Kale and lots of butter, a vegan version in this case.  The English call it Bubble and Squeak.  The fifth course was pesto pasta with cannellini beans, and we finished up with cake.

We had a great evening with the members of the Elder quorum presidency.  We're shown here with President Kenton Phillips and his wife Cheryl.

Counselors Jay Best, and Logan Peterson are shown here on a house tour.

They were having fun celebrating at the Summers house as well.  Reagan was a little disappointed when her leprechaun trap did not net one. 

These kidkins in Texas had fun dressing up for St.Patty's at school.

We woke up Thursday to our world blanketed in snow again ... it ended up snowing like this three times this week, though each time it melted off quickly.

Dad was back up to Darby's that day, and finished up framing the wall on the east side.

I worked that day, but made most of the food that morning, along with setting the table.  Dad and I both got home after 6 and were able to pull off the dinner with time to spare. Here we have Andrew Hale, Liesel Allen, Dad, me, Will Hall and Gwyneth Allen. All but Liesel were missionaries together in Finland.  Liesel is Gwyneth's twin sister, and served in Denmark.

Will was impressed with the size of our toilet, evidently.

More house touring.

On Friday we drove to SLC where I dropped Dad off at Darby's again, while I did some serious junking.  When I went back to get him I was impressed with the beauty of the flower arrangement that Dallas (the man) had given to Darby for Valentines.  We finally managed to stop at IKEA and we bought new pans.  It only took 6 weeks to manage it. 

Dad and I finished off the day stopping in Spanish at Cubby's for dinner, where we got to say hi to Ian and got a big hug.  They were crazy busy, and I was surprised he was allowed out of the kitchen at all.  Dinner was great, and Ian was so right about a firmly cooked bean burger, yum!. 

On Saturday, I puttered around the house, while Dad ran up to Darby's again for a lesson in using a concrete nail gun with Dallas, that will make it easier and faster for Dad to anchor Darby's walls to the floor.  Then he went to Jeff and Robin's to paint basement walls with Jeff.  They are on a deadline, with their carpet scheduled, so they were glad for a little help.

I met him and the Moes for dinner in American Fork at Mi Ranchito, where Ben always used to love to go.  I never go there, or see the Tostada Grande on their menu without thinking fondly of him.

Afterward we met up at Heuer's again to play games.  It was our first time to play golf, or under nine, in person.  Its the game we have been playing with the Smiths on facetime for a year. Jeff's Mom, Luceil won, she had the most amazing luck.  But she is such a great lady, she definitely deserves it.  It was fun to get together again.

We stayed home from our church so that we could see Sister Kari Moss' homecoming talk.  It really was an extraordinary message.  She talked about three different baptism experiences she had.  They were all unique, and she shared attributes of Christ that she learned from each of the people involved.

Here she is with her companion, Sister Larson, at the baptism for her friend Lemar.

Here I am with her last December, along with Sister Kervinen, and her companion on the far right, Sister Armstong.

Emily posted some pictures from the last month today, and I thought I would save a few here.  This is Bekie, after gathering eggs using her great, great grandmother, Ida Perkins' egg basket.  Its kind of a miracle that I still had it and knew where it was.  

This is Sam with Benny and the wiener dog, Bronco, he waited ten years to get.  Emily's not really a fan of animals, so Sam the animal lover has had a lot of smaller pets in that time, like turtles and birds and the like.

And I just can't resist saving this picture of their little family snuggling on the couch in coats and blankets during the recent Snowpocolipse, as the snow storms that blanketed Texas last month are now being termed.

It was also fun to see the pictures of Charlie's dance program on Insta.  She had done a preview for us when they were here last month, and indeed, there were no extra people allowed to watch the performances.  Alas, great pictures, though.

Today I ran across this charming Karl Larson painting that reminds me of my own decor.  I so love his work and I am in the process of framing a couple of his prints, that I bought and hung in Finland, but that I brought home in a tube, to save space and weight in my luggage, especially since I am not a fan of the minimalist Scandinavian frames they were in.

I made a new recipe for dinner that was yummy.  Its a baked sweet potato which was blanketed with chick peas in barbecue sauce and vegan ranch dressing.  It was supposed to have an avocado too, but the one I had saved turned out to be one of those that was picked to early and is rubbery.  We loved it anyway. 

... and speaking of blankets, I thought I would share the room updates I did in preparation for the house tours on Wednesday and Thursday.  This is the bride room ... with a favorite blanket I have had for years, but never had a place to use.

The boxed up bridal collection was finally released.

I finished up the craft room on Monday, and after our shots on Tuesday, Dad hauled the mattress up, and put on the new zippered mattress cover by himself, while I was sleeping off some of the effects of my shot.  I of course found this lovely antique red and white quilt blanket to cover the bed ... along with my German Good morning and Good Night redwork pillow covers.

I plan to cover the little four drawer set in plaid paper, but that is for another day. It feels so good to be finally done with this project.  I have yet to catalogue where everything is, but I have already found and used at least a half a dozen things in other projects this week, as well as doing a little sewing for the first time in years.

Last of all is the new blankets and bedding for our bed.  Happily, I was finally able to find the wallpaper and coordinating fabric on Tuesday,  I made the new pillowcases on Wednesday, so everything was ready for house touring.  I was so thrilled to find the wallpaper.  Though I had even thought of buying new wallpaper, and had, as you saw, worked up a stamped/stenciled design, I really just wanted to use the Laura Ashley wallpaper.  So happy me. I really have been blanketed with blessings this week. 

I thought I'd share some of my other blanketing arrangements since December of 2015 when we finished up the attic bedroom.  Much love.  I hope you are blanketed with love and blessing, and not snow,  this coming week.

 

Good Things to Eat Especially on Pi Day!

What a week.  On Monday Dad and I parted forces and I spent five hours reworking my booth at the antique mall.  Dad took the van over for emissions, worked on getting the tax stuff ready for his appointment, washed our sheets and remade the bed, etc. 

We rewarded ourselves for all our hard work by going to join Trevor et al for a movie night.

It was our first time to be treated to a movie at their house since they put in their couch back table for snacking, and evidently for home work too.  We were just glad that Scott was there so we could hang out. 

Their super long couch had room for everyone.

Penny came and sat by Papa after her snack, I love this picture of them, I just wish it wasn't blurry.

We saw the new Disney movie called Raya and the Last Dragon.  We actually liked it a lot, especially because the dragon's name is Sisu, which coincidentally is the Finnish word that means, being super brave, and doing what ever has to be done, without thoughts of personal safety.  That seems appropriate. 

On Tuesday I planted some cilantro and Ben's red and white striped petunias.  Britt bought me the flower seeds before our last mission, and we planted some on our balcony in Finland too. 

Dad kept busy with house chores too ... here he is putting a frame back together for one of the paintings I brought home from Finland, that fell apart in transit.

Our reward was to walk over to the little Sushi place that is housed in the old One Man Band building called Crane Garden Asian Bistro.  They have a special we thought would be great, three rolls for 9 dollars ... we shared that and ordered another meal to share.  Its good we ordered the other meal, because the sushi was doll house sized, and they forgot to mention it.

I guess the universe sensed our disappointment, because as we were walking over to Crouch's to see if the van was done, Darby called and invited us to go for Sushi at Sushi-Ya, that night.  Of course we said yes.

I worked like mad on my craft room change over all day.  I worked on it last week too, we're want to fit a double bed in there, so that if we need to have lots of people come to stay we will have more bed space.  I found the double bed a few weeks ago, and managed to clear the corner of books cases, and other storage items, so that I could bring up the bed and partially set it up, so I could see what I could put under it.  I only had to get rid of three storage pieces.  One a bookcase I have put in the main guest room, the small drawered piece I passed on to a loved one, which leaves me with a paper and sticker file to sell at the garage sale I am having in late April or early May.  I hauled out about 8 medium storage containers of supplies to take to the mall, and half that much for the garage sale.  I know TMI.

Dad did more chores around the house, as you see here.

We all had a lovely time at Sushi Ya that night, as you see.

I think it was that day that Sam posted some camping pictures of his tribe.  Aren't they all too cute.

and while I am showing off my cute grands, I thought I would share Zach's nice haircut. 

These items are from the craft room, and are now established at the antique mall, as per Wednesday.

These wonderful antique wire flowers, got kicked out of my locked case to make room for other goodies when I redid my case.  One of the big things I did on Monday was to move my only locked case to the front of my big booth.  It took a lot of arranging to make it happen.  Then while I was redoing the case, one of the glass shelves slipped off it bracket, and slipped through my hands to the cement floor, while everything that had been on the self, fell to the shelf below.  I was amazed that none of the items in the case broke.  I also, fortunately, had an extra shelf in another part of the case that I was not using as a shelf.  

Dad went to Darby's on both Wednesday and Thursday and got some wiring done.

On Wednesday, before heading to Darby's he went to our tax accountant in Mapleton, so stopped at the Springville cemetery on his way to the freeway.  He loved seeing the marker that Hannah had gotten for Ben's grave.

I think it was Thursday that I got these pictures of Davin and Bri's kids having fun with their Dr. Suess party in a bag.  

Keith came over to do a gift certificate when I was working on Thursday, but forgot his glasses and borrowed mine.  Isn't he the cutest?

On Friday I went walking with my friend Tina, around the cemetery here in Payson.  I couldn't figure out what situation would require this arrangement of head stones ... turns out it is a man and his two wives.  The second wife is clearly the one that ordered the arrangement.  I think its lovely.  While we were taking the picture a lady in a red SUV drove up and told me she'd hit my car.  We went back with her, and I could hardly see the damage, on my car, though her bumper clearly had damage.  I told her not to worry about it, and she insisted that I take her name and phone in case my husband felt differently. When I saw her name I realized that she was the mother of a boy that Becca dated in High school.  She also worked for the family doing western skill competitions. Becca even went with them to Wyoming that summer for a show they were doing there.  She asked about Becca, and said how much she had always liked her.  She was very impressed when I told her all Becca has accomplished in real estate, and was stunned by the fact that she has four children.  Anyway, funny thing to happen, but it was so fun to visit.

On Saturday we spent the morning running errands.  Here we are at Walmart, looking for St Patty's decor for an upcoming dinner, since we were too late to get anything at the dollar store ... fortunately this hat had no price tag, so it had not sold ...

Next it was Costco, where I was fitted for real glasses with progressive lenses. 

At Macey's we got a cake for  Dana DeWitt's birthday, which is the same day as my Dad's.  Happy Birthday Dad, it was just a year ago that we were told we would have to go home from our mission.  Thankfully the thirteenth was lucky and we were told we could stay. (Dana wasn't home, so I texted him, and he said he was on his way home.)  I left the cake on his patio table.

Later that day my cousin Debbie's daughter posted this cake that  Debbie had made for her daughter.  (Debbie is the one that painted Dad's portrait in the library) She is such an artist.

That night we got together with the Kews and Brent Johns from the ward and went out for Mexican food.  Brent's wife Sarah used to be the chorister for the nursing home branch, when Dad was in the presidency.  She used to call him Brother Bowtie.  We were not in the same ward then, as it was two divisions ago.  Sarah has since passed away.  She is such a darling girl, and is so missed.

On Saturday morning we had the two best looking pie delivery guys ever.  Becca, as a realtor, delivers pies to members of her Club 92 for Pi day, 3/14.  She has something she does for this group every month. Brady says the pies are his favorite.  Some times it is movies, and holiday activities, like going to a Halloween Event, or pictures with Santa, I think she even did a magic show and dinner once.

Emily called early Sunday to nail down the details of our trip to Texas the end of the month. Abby was so sad that we would be there for William's birthday (and baptism)  but not for hers.

Then her mom told her she could have her birthday gifts and party two weeks early.  Abby said, "Will I still have my real birthday too?"  Her mom said, "sure", what a difference 20 seconds can make.

9:00 A.M. Its time for Church ... Sister Emma Quigley's homecoming talk from Idaho.

10:00 A.M.Then Tess Perkins' homecoming talk in California, (She served in the Paris France mission)

11:00 A.M., it was physical church at our own ward, for our ward conference.  

12:00, it was Sister Jaclyn Bether's sharing her homecoming remarks from Draper, Utah.

She said something that really stuck with me ... she said that there is a whole infrastructure of Heavenly beings helping and supporting us during our life here, and that once in a while we are privileged to see a glimpse of what's really going on.  I loved that, it rings true for me in my experience.

Meanwhile Charlie's looking Hip (Hop) as she dances at another competition this weekend.

After churches, and some gospel study and a Come Follow Me program on line, we scooted down stairs to set up a leprechaun table for two of our favorite missionaries who were coming to dinner.  Elder Fitzpatrick, of Irish decent, and Elder Hale, who were assistants together through most of the mid part of our mission, going home last summer, were our guests.  

Elder Fitzpatrick told me that his family name means, bastard son of Patrick. Well I consider St. Patricks' day to be his, so I hauled out the green a few days early.  I guess the leprechauns approved, because look at the rainbow that was cast on the dining room wall while I was setting it all up.

You can see how key that leprechaun hat is.

Since it is Pi Day, Elder F made a traditional pie, its sort of cheese cakish and is made in a spring form pan.  He had trouble finding one to borrow because none of the guys he knew understood what it was.  He made one for us in Finland too, and we joked about it being time to 'spring the form'.

Of course we had the Razzleberry pie from our fabulous realtor too. Happy pie day.

Which called for big dessert plates.

Elder Fitzpatrick said he is too tall to be a leprechaun, that he is the King of the Leprechauns, so he wears a crown, while the somewhat shorter Elder Hale does the honors in the hat.  We love these young men so much.

and Ashley, never to be outdone in the goodie department, said that, being a contrarian, she made banana bread for Pi day .... I love it!