The Hargetts are such good people! We have the whole upstairs to ourselves, but we share their kitchen, so Pat and I take turns cooking and doing dishes.
Lily's baptism was the Saturday after we got back, July 16th, and she looked precious in her new dress.
I love seeing our grandchildren being baptized! Such a sweet occasion.
And. . . since Lily's baptism, we've been filling our time with an assortment of activities.
I hired Dana Wood to finish a painting that I started last year because it became clear that in the midst of everything else, I wouldn't be able to complete it. He took some artistic liberties with it and I'm kind of disappointed with the final outcome, but I had already given it back to him once because he needed fix some things that weren't right, and, this time, I felt I just needed to take it and go. He said that Susy could bring it back to him any time if she wasn't satisfied with it, but I doubt that she will. I wanted the painting to be a surprise for Susy, but I could tell, she wasn't too excited with it. Oh well. . .
This is the photo I started with.
Here's the underpainting I did before giving it to Dana.
And, this is the final painting.
It's a good enough painting, but their heads are not proportional to each other and the fact that he made her head so small, instead of painting from the photo and the underpainting I gave him, really bothers me. Oh well. . . I think Dana is a good artist, and I've seen portraits he's done of his own family members that are great - but, for some reason, he just couldn't seem to envision this one the way I expected. I wish I'd been able to finish it myself. It probably wouldn't have looked as "painterly", but, I think I might have been happier with it. I just had too much else going on to do it. . .
On a better note, I got John's quilt back from the long-arm quilter who was working it, and was able to finish it, and add the binding. I'm very happy to say I'm heading off on our mission with all of my children and my husband having quilts I've made for them. Woo Hoo! It was delightful to be able to present this quilt to John.
I think he's pretty happy with it - although, now it seems my other sons may be jealous that he got a cooler quilt than they did. . .
We also continue to pare down for the mission. We still had two cars when we got to the Hargetts, and didn't consolidate as much as we should have. Now, my car is sold and we can only take what we can fit in Bob's car, so we keep sorting through and taking more stuff to storage. We do have a couple of small boxes of things we don't need right away that we're giving to Heather to mail after we get there. But, since we're taking our time driving across country, we don't want to have so much stuff visible in the back seat that someone might be tempted to steal it — we only want to have as much in the back as we're willing to carry into the hotel each night along the way. (We feel it will be safe to leave things in the trunk, but not out where others can see it.)
It's fun that we already have our mission address and know we'll be living right across the street from the Conference Center in the West Temple apartments. (185 N. West Temple, Apt. 709, SLC) We'll be on the 7th floor, on the west side of the building, so won't have a view of the temple from our apartment, but, I think we'll still have a pleasant view. Its an older building — I understand we'll have formica counter tops and scratched up porcelain sinks with old metal rims — but that's okay. We'll be within walking distance of anywhere in the mission and these apartments have two bedrooms, which I really wanted. All the newer, fancier apartments are only one bedroom. This way we have a place for visitors to sleep and I'm hoping some of our kids will come even if we can only spend very limited time with them while they're there.
We're stopping in several places on the way west, and we're looking forward to the trip, as well as beginning our mission!
