Gorgeous, Ghastly Green

Early this summer I admired the seed package that boasted a photo of an amazing green pumpkin.  Seeing that it required a longer growing season than we have here I knew it wasn’t likely we’d get any.  But, hopefully, I planted it any way.  Today I brought these beauties in!  We got the ghostly white ones too.  And the little one with the big schnauze  was a seed  from Bridget a few years ago.  They were in a brown sack on which I had written “Bridget’s Cute Lil’ Punkins.”  There are a whole bunch out there to harvest!  The reddish one deserves its own post too.   It is called “Cinderella” and comes from Big Kyles’ dad’s patch down in Monticello.  (he gave me one when we were down visiting last time)  Glory be.  I’m in punkin heaven.

Even the purslane looked pretty today against its backdrop of ethereal Dusty Miller.

I’m collecting seeds from flowers that were particularly glorious – like this red zinnia.  It was the first to bloom and it went Boom! all summer.

All these below are from one seedling.  I think I’ll name it myself and call it ‘Scarlet Abundance’.

The pumpkins are honored guests for the season and make great bookends.

 

Heads Up!  The Wolf Den is back in full swing.

Mark and Kyle’s Primary Program Practice.  Every face seems to have a story.

Project Bedroom (Mom’s)

Last Saturday after the temple open house and while Mark and Kyle got to spend some one-on-two-time with their cuz, Jay and I met Keli at Mom’s house for a happy purpose.  A creative purpose.

New paint, window, flooring – a new, fresh look was in order for Mom.  Here are a few pictures of the painting part of the project.

In the beginning . . .

The carpet will go – the dark wood trim and doors will go -  tired ceiling and walls will get freshened with the softest, whispered yellow (thanks Jana, we used your Corinthian White Benjamin Moore colour again!) – the night tables and bed boards will become a feminine and cheerful robin-egg blue.  Oh, my.

But first, the prep-work.

 

Guess what this is?  If you can’t, read on.

It’s Keli’s brilliant idea on  how to hold the tiny screws still and upright to receive their fresh spray of paint.  Stick them in a wrinkly (but not rotting) potatoe.

(Notice I have switched to my Canadian-influenced background, eh?  I mean potatoe, tomatoe, colour. . .  My American English dictionary is desperately trying to correct me.  Correct on!   It feels good to be Canadian too.  I have my Maple Leaf  flag and T-shirt handy.  This evening I want to go take family pictures among the maple leaves.  And this year, I want to honor Thanksgiving in October too!  Amazing what a trip back to Vanderhoof will do to this red-blooded United States gal.  I guess there will always be a part of me that loves everything Big and Beautiful and British Columbian too.)

A – hem.  As I was saying . . .

Here is the Queen Mum elevating feet and mind in the other room.  Obviously she had to be temporarily ousted from her room to across the hall.  This was her way of escaping our noisy business of loud voices, fans and a blaring Pandora Radio.

I wonder if she remembers another painting project many years ago.  That time it was just her and me.  We were painting a little bathroom, and the fumes got to us before we realized we were being overcome. The one and only time I saw Mom laying on the living room carpet laughing uncontrollably and as silly and limp as a new kitten.  Ah, where was my camera then?

Hands down, my favorite part is the painting of the furniture.  By the time we got to this point it was dark and hard to capture how pretty they are turning out.

We do not want to hog all the fun and there is still fun to be had.  Indeed, labor and laughter still needed:

• Installation of the laminate floor tomorrow for FHE, Monday Sept. 24.  Some of us could also be picking grapes.
• $$ for the million things, big and little, that crop up on a project like this
• window (she’s having a new one installed) and closet dressing.
• I’ll have to edit this list after I talk to Project Manager Keli since I can’t remember  . . .   Better yet, call her too.

We haven’t had FHE there for a long time, but we’ll always remember them and the testimonies of Jesus Christ, his gospel, and Family that were shared. I miss seeing everyone and having our children see their Grandma K.  So glad we had that precious time.

A Beautiful Bride (and her Groom)

Oh how lovely was the morning that we went to the alfalfa fields and caught Caitlin and her loveliness.   The summer flew by in a happy whirl.  But autumn is a gathering-in and a preserving, and a savoring of the summers experiences time.  I love Autumn and I love the memories Summer provided.

  

Brigham City Temple Open House

Last Saturday found us up and early heading for Brigham City to experience the Temple Open House there.  Andrew came too!

We loved to see the temple.

Then we walked around the Tabernacle across the street.

All Boy

Last Sunday found me at Koriann and Brian’s home to capture their new baby boy’s first days on this grand ol’ sphere.  It took a long time, but that’s OK – it was fun just to be with them.  Their home was all abuzz with the spirit a newborn brings: fun, concern, laughing, newborn boy antics (can you guess?) frustration, sibling envy, awe.  Here’s what we got:

   

Many hands make light (happy) work.

Photos–Paul and Kaylene

What do a country road drive with Grandma and Grandpa, a taco dinner with Kenningtons, a family photo shoot with Jessie, and a performance with the  Bar D Wranglers  have in common?  Why, they all happened last night and were all extremely fun.  These are images of the Photo Shoot part.  Love you Paul, Kaylene and Jessie!

  

   

Happy Day!  Great family!

Fun In Fillmore

We’ve been wanting to do it for a long time.

We’ve been wanting to see  the Bar D Wranglers and hear them croon their Western Folk sound right at us in person.   Last night they did!  And it wasn’t in Durango, CO either.  Jay took us there the fast, lesser road traveled, and in about an hour we were at Paul and Kaylene’s doorstep in Fillmore.  Papa and Liisa came too.  The Kennington’s fed us delicious tacos and I had a family photo shoot with them (see next post).

Here are some images of the night:

  

My view from the middle seat – My Cowboy Jay driving,  Papa riding shotgun, and Mark in back.  Liisa was sitting too close and Kyle was directly behind so I couldn’t get them in my sights.

Fillmore has a distinguished history and they celebrate it every year with this event.

  

    

 

 

There were pioneer way-of-life demonstrations.  Mark is explaining to me what a ‘flint lock’ gun is.  This boy knows his guns and swords!

Then!  How the Bar D Wranglers sing, sang, sung!  Remember the ballad that took place “Out in the west, Texas town of El Paso”?  Where he “fell in love with a Mexican girl’?  And how it went very badly for him?  I am newly grateful that it didn’t go SO badly for him that he didn’t first get it all down in song for us (the ballad is written in first person) before it was “one little kiss and Felina (dramatic pause here) goooood-buuu aaaaayeeee!”   They swooned, and slid and yipped us (all in perfect harmony) through the evening way too fast.  Loved it!

   

Besides reminding us about the “rain Tess, the fire Joe, and the wind Maria” they also introduced us to a new folksy song about new critters that Ol’ MacDonald had on his farm.  Like a dyslexic sheep that didn’t go ‘baa baa here,” or “baa baa there”  he went  “aab aab”.  There was also a stuttering bull and a lisping snake that I won’t try to explain.  Maybe it’s on You Tube to see for yourself.  They were “proud to be an American” and they asked God to “bless America” and declared “America Beautiful” all in one stirring patriotic medley.  They forgot to sing “Streets of Larado”, “Tumbleweeds”, “Ghost Riders” and “Happy Trails to You”, so, we, the audience sang the Happy Trails one to them.

The West must have, at least in part, been won with music and humor like this.